Great Kilt

Tartan Great Kilt Traditional Scottish Feileadh Mor Expo Tartan

The traditional Highland Garment

The oldest and most traditional Highland dress of Scottish history is the Great Kilt, in Scottish Gaelic Feileadh Mor or big wrap. The Great Kilt dates back centuries to the modern tailored kilt, and consists of a single piece of tartan fabric, most often 4 to 6 yards wide and up to 6 yards long, belted at the waist and draped over the shoulder.
The Great Kilt was the day-to-day attire of the Highland clansmen, having been born in the Scottish Highlands of the 16th century, the Great Kilt was a highly versatile and practical garment, full of symbolism which could be used as clothing, cloak and blanket in the harsh Highland weather.

A living fragment of Scottish History

The Great Kilt was not just a piece of clothing. It was identity. Every tartan was a visual representation of the clan, region and loyalty of its wearer, and was one of the earliest and most influential ways of visual identification in human history.
The Great Kilt was a symbol of Highland resistance and Scottish national pride especially in the Jacobite uprisings of the 18th century. In 1746, after the Jacobite defeat at Culloden, the British Government enacted the Act of Proscription, which prohibited the wearing of Highland dress including the Great Kilt, in an effort, consciously aimed at destroying Scottish clan culture and identity.
This prohibition was 35 years. The revival of the Great Kilt in 1782, when it was lifted, was an act of cultural reclamation, powerful enough to drive Scottish identity out of existence could not be enacted into it.

The way the Great Kilt is worn

The Great Kilt does not need any sewing or special construction, as compared to the modern tailored kilt. It is worn wholly by folding, by belting, by draping--an art which is transmitted by generations of Highland families.

The traditional method

Arrange the fabric on the floor and fold the middle part with the help of a hand. Lay down on the pleated fabric and have the belt at the waist. Belt and wrap the lower part of the body to make the kilt. Roll and fasten the top part--this may be thrown over the shoulder and caught in with a brooch, or crossed about the body to keep out the cold, or left to hang loose at the back of it.