The main Scottish costume consists of the Leine (a shirt like that worn in the rest of Europe at this time, which did NOT lace up the front in fantasy pirate shirt fashion), the Plaid (previously might have been called a 'brat', or cloak; this word has changed in modern Gaelic to mean a rug or carpet), Trews, a jacket, and shoes. They also wore knee-breeches like the ones worn in the Lowlands or in England. Women wore several petticoats (skirts), the arisaidh (woman's form of the plaid), stays, and a jacket or bedgown, as well as a head-covering known as a kertch if she were married.

The Plaid

scottish costume image The term plaid (pronounced 'playd') here means a blanket or cloak, not the pattern of the material; it can refer to cloth that is white or striped as well as the usual checked cloth. Tartan is the term used for the checked pattern itself.

The plaid is described as being 12 to 18 feet long by about 5 feet wide, being made of two strips of cloth about 30" wide sewn together lengthwise. Those who could afford to do so wore colorful tartans, whereas the poorer folk wore browns and so on, the better to blend with the vegetation. (This is not, however, due to a lack of access to colorful dyes, which were, and are, quite plentiful and readily available throughout Scotland.) White, striped and single-color plaids were also common. In earlier periods, sheep and goat skins seem also to have been worn as mantles, both with and without the hair still attached.

The plaid (usually unbelted) was also worn with trews, and was worn wrapped over one shoulder and under the opposite arm.

Plaids are generally pinned at the shoulder with an iron pin or bodkin, not a penannular brooch, which fell out of use about 600 years prior to this period.

Women's Plaids or Arisaids

They were about the same size as men's plaids, but sometimes were plain white or striped rather than tartan. (To get the striped fabric, they most likely used the same warp as was used to make the tartans, but used one color for the weft.) Women wore the plaid like a shawl, they were generally fastened at the breast with a ring brooch, which is a brass or silver round ring, decorated with engraving or other ornamentation. At some point, women also started belting their plaids around themselves, very much as men did, pinning both upper ends of the plaid on their breast. Women's plaids, whether belted or unbelted, however, were called arisaids, as distinct from the breacan feile (the Gaelic name for the kilt).

Trews and Breeches

Trews were worn in Scotland from the medieval period through the end of the 18th century, usually by men wealthy enough to own and/or ride horses. They are descended either from early Celtic braccae/broc, or from footed hose common throughout Europe in the middle ages and worn elsewhere in the British Isles through the 17th century for casual wear, or both. Knee breeches were also worn in the Highlands, but presumably were not remarked upon very often since they weren't unusual. Three bodies have been found in bogs in Caithness, Lewis, and the Shetlands from the late 1600s/early 1700s, and two are wearing knee breeches, while one (a boy) is wearing a long coat that isn't typical of the short coats we think of Highlanders wearing during this period. He may have been wearing linen breeches, but if he was, the acidity of the bog has eaten them away since linen is a plant material, leaving the protein fibers of his woolen garments untouched.

Jackets/Coats

scottish costume image Both men's and women's outerwear seems, as far as we can tell from period portraits, to mirror that worn in England at the time, with the exception of men's coats when they are wearing the belted plaid, in which case they are shorter than usual, reaching only the top of the hip. This is a practical consideration, since it would be impossible to wear a knee-length coat with a belted plaid -- the skirts of the coat would interfere with the belted plaid. Men also wore waistcoats under their coats, either with sleeves or without sleeves (waistcoats in this period often had sleeves, which could be either sewn in, or tied on with lacing). Men would NOT have worn their waistcoats alone without their coats, unless they were engaged in hard physical labor.

Women in Scotland, as in England, seem to be wearing either a jacket like a feminized version of the man's jacket, or (by the mid-1700s) what is called a 'bedgown' -- a more shapeless, mid-hip to knee-length gown. It's possible that women also sometimes wore a sort of waistcoat (over their stays), with sleeves that tied on, like men's waistcoats. However, they did NOT wear these waistcoats as outer garments.

Stays

Women would have worn stays. Also worn at home would have been lightly-boned stays called 'jumps,' worn for very informal occasions such as during the confinement after childbirth; they aren't considered proper wear for public. Working women's stays were often of rough linen canvas or of thick leather, which would be scored along the lines where boning goes on a cloth corset; this scoring helps the leather to bend properly around the torso. If the stays were of cloth, the boning could be of materials such as straw (like broom-straw), caning, or other cheap and available stiffeners. Another reason for the wearing of stays is the prevalence of rickets and other diseases causing curvature of the spine - stays were seen as one way of keeping the body from becoming deformed due to illness. A modern, practical consideration for wearing stays is that they make great back support, especially when one is working around camp, lifting heavy pots, firewood, and other things.

Kertch / hats

scottish costume image The Hen Wife" by Richard Waitt (1706). Notice the head covering, called a 'kertch' or 'breid', worn by Scottish married women in the 1600s and 1700s. The kertch appears to be worn on top of a close-fitting coif of some kind, held on with a brass pin at the crown of the head.
The Highland bonnet seems to have gradually made its way into the Highlands by the mid-to-late 1700s. It is a direct descendant of the soft-crowned, brimmed hat worn during the 16th century, which over time lost its brim and became the Scottish bonnet we all know today. There are other hats with similar or identical shapes, including the Basque beret, (possibly) the Monmouth cap worn by sailors throughout the middle ages, and a beret-like hat worn by the very early Celts, but apparently this shape died out in the Highlands and was reintroduced.

Shoes

The Ballyhagan shoe was a gathered type of pampootie, Arran Islands Pampootie were more like a ballet slipper and the Drummaccon Bog shoe.

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