Kilts are traditional garb from Scotland, right? Well, that’s not quite the whole story. In an article from 1858, William Pinkerton noted that ancient Highlanders and Irishmen, both Celts, generally went bare-legged and wore a long, baggy shirt dyed yellow with autumnal saffron. Over this, they wore an untailored woollen cloth which also served as a sleeping blanket. The cloth wrapped around and gathered into folds which stopped somewhere below the knee. Sometimes they also wore animal skin, especially deerskin. So how did the tailored, pleated kilt come to signify Scotland? And why do so many men, Highlanders or not, wear it these days—either to formal events like Christmas and New Year parties, or even daily?
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