Figure 1.--This cabinet card pprtrait shows two boys, presumably brothers, wearing Scottish Highland kilt outfits. The boys wear identical outfits. Both boys wear Eton coillars, embroidered jackets and vests, kilts, sporans, knee socks, and strap shoes. The kilts were done in suiting material rather than tartan. The portrait was taken by Frederick Downer of Watford. Watford is a town in Herfordshire now part of the London metropolitan area. The portrait is undated, but looks like it was probably taken in the 1880s.

Scottish boys wore kilts with their clan tartans. English boys did not have clan tartans to wear. We are thus not sure just how the tartans they wore were selected. Of course some English boys had Scottish relatives, but most did not. We suspect that mother may simply have slected patterns that appealed to then from the tartan patterns in the shops. Perhaps our English readers will know more about this. Another option was to do the kikt it suiting material rather than a tartan. Herecwec are talking about Highlnd kilt outfits and not kilt suits that were commonly done in suiting material matching their jackets, rather than tartans. Based on the available photographic record, selecting a coloful Scottish tartan seems to have been the option that mothers preferred. Thesec images are much more common than the plain suiting material.

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Created: 4:45 AM 3/25/2012
Last updated: 4:45 AM 3/25/2012