INTRODUCTION
Scotland is the second-largest of the constituent nations of the United Kingdom., occupying about one-third of the island of Great Britain. The name Scotland derives from the Latin Scotia, land of the Scots. Scots were Celtic people from Ireland who settled on the west coast of Great Britain in the 5th century CE. It is the land where ancient castles guard misty lochs and wild deer roam heather-flecked hillsides.
Edinburgh, capital city, is a handsome city of great historical significance and one of Europe’s chief cultural centres. Other significant principal cities include Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen, and Perth, all centres for industry, transportation, and commerce.
TEXTILE HISTORY
Scotland has a rich culture which is distinct from the other nations in the UK. Scotland has a rich and diverse textile heritage, the evidence of which is preserved within archives and museums across the country and further afield outside the education sector. It was known through the textiles found on archaeological digs that from weaving and sewing in the home, to full scale mechanized factory textile production, and needlework associations, all have fabricated the textile history of Scotland.
The linen industry was Scotland’s foremost industry in the 18th century and later formed the basis for the cotton, jute, and woollen industries. At first the leading industry, based in the west, was the spinning and weaving of cotton. After the cutting off of supplies of raw cotton from 1861 as a result of the American Civil War Scottish entrepreneurs and engineers, and its large stock of easily mined coal, the country diversified into engineering, shipbuilding, and locomotive construction, with steel replacing iron after 1870. The Scottish members of parliament managed to see off an attempt to impose an export duty on linen and from 1727 it received subsidies of £2,750 a year for six years, resulting in a considerable expansion of the trade. Paisley adopted Dutch methods and became a major centre of production. Glasgow manufactured for the export trade, which doubled between 1725 and 1738. In 1746 The British Linen Company was established. It was the largest firm in the Scottish linen industry in the 18th century, exporting linen to England and America. In 1728, 2.2 million yards of linen cloth had been produced and it had already superseded woollen cloth as the major manufacturing industry, reached 7.6 million and peaked at 12.1 million yards in 1775. However, there were sharp slumps as most of the manufacture were carried out in homes, rather than factories. It employed perhaps 100,000 people, four out of five of which were women. Women mainly spun the flax and men operated the looms. Sheer linenwas almost unobtainable in Scotland became had come into prevalence. Glasgow manufacturers turned to fine cotton muslin, in order to stay competitive, that it became cheaper than imported Indian muslins.
TARTAN
It’s a fabric made up of horizontal and vertical stripes in different colours, on a coloured background. Tartan is made with alternating bands of threads. The process is stated below:
- Firstly, the threads are pre dyed.
- Then each thread in the warpcrosses each thread in the weft at right angles.
- A thread in the warp crosses a thread of the same colour in the weft. In doing so, it engenders a solid colour on the tartan, while a thread crossing another of a different colour engenders an equal mixture of the two colours used.
- The weft is woven in a simple twill, advancing one thread at each pass. This helps in forming a visible diagonal line where different colours cross. This gives the appearance of new colours blended from the original ones. These interwoven stripes are known as sett.
It was used to make the items of clothing which are today considered traditional Scottish dress, including the philabeg, or kilt, and the trews. These were worn with shoes of untanned hide and the cuaran, a knee length boot also made from hide which was shaped to the leg and kept in place by thongs. The highly ornamented leather sporran worn in front of the kilt served as a purse completed the ensemble.
One of the earliest references to the use of tartans by royals was by the treasurer to King James III, who in 1471 purchased a length of cloth for the king and queen. King James V wore tartan whilst hunting in the Highlands in 1538, and King Charles II wore a ribbon of tartan on his coat at his marriage in 1662.
It is said that the weavers took great pain to give exact patterns of tartan by identifying each colour of every thread upon a piece of wood known as a maide dalbh, or pattern stick. With the evolution of chemical dies, weavers were able to introduce more elaborate patterns including more vivid and varied colours. The tartan pattern remains same what it was ages ago.
THE GREAT TAPESTRY OF SCOTLAND
The Great Tapestry of Scotland tells the inspirational true story of the country’s history, heritage and culture by a series of embroidered cloths made up of 160 hand stitched panels, depicting aspects of the history of Scotland from 8500 BC until its launch in 2013.It was hand stitched by over 1000 people in communities across Scotland and transported by land, sea and air to come together. It is made on linen–cotton union fabric.
COSTUME
Traditional dress of Scotland, also called the highland dress, changes our understanding of men’s costume. Women’s outfit is more familiar to us unlike men’s kilt. Scottish traditional dresses are astounding and engrossing.
Kilt is a knee-length skirt like garment generally worn by men as a crucial component of the traditional national attire of Scotland. The other main component of the traditional male garment of Scotland is the plaid which is a rectangular length of cloth worn over the left shoulder.
Great kilt attire is a historical way to wear a kilt. The great kilt is a long tartan piece of fabric that is worn not only as a skirt but as a cloak too. Half of the fabric is pinned over the shoulder and tucked into the belt. Usually, great kilt is worn with kilt hose, sporran, flashes and era correct shoes.
Ancient kilt attire is a historical and traditional dress. Such kilts are made for very cold weather. They are worn with Jacobite shirt, leather vest, bracers, and boots.
The kilt is woven wool that is permanently pleated except for sections at each end and wrapped around the wearer’s waist in such a way that the pleats are massed at the wearer’s back and the flat, unpleated ends overlap to form a double layer at his front. Both kilt and plaid are usually made of cloth woven with a cross-checked repeating pattern, tartan.
Traditional dress of Scotland consists of a kilt, sporran, sgian dubh which is a small, single-edged knife, a kilt hose, and ghillies. Ghillies are the traditional shoes of Scotland.
Female traditional dress of Scotland consists of a tartan skirt, a tartan sash or shawl, and ghillies. Originally the skirts were of ankle-length but over the years they have been varied. Skirts can be of different length. women wear knee-long or even very short mini-skirts. Long tartan dresses are also in prevalence.
Over the years there have been variation and people have modified the authentic garment according to their needs and comfort.
Casual dress are what they generally wear daily. Usually includes kilt, Jacobite shirt, sporran, belt and buckle, kilt hose and kilt pin. Being an everyday garment, they add any details or accessories not necessarily stick to the traditional attire.
Semi-formal dress is more official, but still, it can be used as an everyday attire too. It includes kilt, kilt shirt, argyle jacket, sporran, belt and buckle, kilt hose, ghillie brogues, kilt pin and flashes.
kilt, kilt shirt, prince Charlie jacket, fancy sporran, belt and buckle, kilt hose, ghillie brogues, flashes, and fly plaid form the basis of the formal garment. It is worn for official purposes, receptions, formal meetings, festivals and other events.
References:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/kilt
https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/The-History-of-Tartan/
https://www.visitscotland.com/about/uniquely-scottish/kilts-tartan/
