Figure 1.--This CDV portrait shows an unidentified Scottish boy and mother. The boys wears a kilt suit that looks like the ones commonly worn in America. The portrait is undated, but we woukd guess was taken in the 1870s. The studio was J. Hardie in Coupar Angus. This is a town in Perth and Kinross, situated 4 miles south of Blairgowrie. The name Coupar Angus serves to differentiate the town from the Cupar to the south in Fife.

HBC has no indication that kilt suits were worn to any extent in Scotland. We have noted very few photographs of Scottish boys wearing kilt suits. We have a relatively small Scottish archive. Even so, we have found quite a few portraits of Scottish boys wearing Highland kilts. And if kilt suits were very common we would have noted at least a few. It is likely that Scottish parents familiar with the kilt probably would not have accepted a non-traditional usage. American mothers had no real idea what a real kilt was. Thus a skirt with a few pleats or perhaps a subdued tartan pattern were acceptable as a kilt. We uspect Scottish parents mostly wanted real kilts. A Scottish reader has provided an assesment of kilt suits in Scotland and England. His conclusion is that they were not worn to any extent. The kilt suit thus appears to have been a destinctly American garment although worn to a minor extent in some other countries.

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Created: 7:48 AM 5/21/2014
Last updated: 7:49 AM 5/21/2014