Highland Dress
for Women
At the risk of being accused of gender bias, it has to be said that in
Highland Dress, the human species seems to have reverted to Nature's simple ways
with the male being dressed in multi-coloured splendour and the poor female
being relegated to a relatively drab role. The wearing of a bulky kilt is not
the most flattering of fashion items for women and with the loss of that
centrepiece of Highland Dress, the choice of traditional day wear is
severely limited. When it comes to 'evening dress' the situation improves fairly
dramatically with the availability of Tartan sashes.
Highland women wore something very similar to the men's plaid called the
earasaid, the English form of which is arisaid. (pr: arisade).
It was much finer and longer than the plaid and reached down to the ground and
would be worn over a thick, long-sleeved petticoat. The arisaid was usually
white with larger and brighter patterns than the men's.
A woman would pleat the arisaid just like the man pleated his plaid. She
would then fix it around her waist with a belt and wrap the spare material
around her shoulders and fix it with a pin in the front. There was usually
enough material left to form a hood that could be pulled up in bad weather. On
top of the arisaid she would often wear a tartan shawl called a tonnag.
The arisaid was warm and comfortable and was excellent for wrapping up babies
and keeping them cosy against their mother's body.
It's said that some women would doze off in church hidden inside the arisaid
hood which upset the clergymen so much so that some of them tried to stop women
wearing it at all.
A married woman wore a kertch (in Gaelic - breid caol. ) This was
made of linen and was like a modern headsquare: it was rolled from one corner
into the middle and the thick band which was made was put round the head and
pinned into the hair to stop it falling down. The remaining triangular piece of
linen would hang down onto the neck. Women who weren't married wore what was
called a snood (Gaelic - stiom. ) which was a length of ribbon which
passed under the girl's hair at the back of her head, and was tied in a bow on
top. A married woman's hair would often be curled in locks, tied with ribbons
and allowed to hang down on her cheeks. Some women wore a 'mutch' which was a
frilled bonnet. At one time, a fashionable lady might have worn pleated
stockings called 'osain'. These made her legs look like big tubes.
Plaid brooches
The brooch used to pin a woman's arisaid
would usually be made of gold, silver or brass and, just like the men's
silver buttons, were frequently passed down from mother to daughter. The
brooches were often engraved with patterns or illustrations of animals.
Luckenbooths.
Luckenbooths were heart-shaped brooches
usually given as tokens of love. They were called luckenbooth because they were
sold in jewellers' "locked booths" situated near St Giles Kirk in Edinburgh.
They were also known as Queen Mary Brooches and were said to have been
pinned to the shawl of every new born girl. The engraving on the back of the
brooches seems to prove that they were tokens of love and two such inscriptions
were:
My heart is thine and thine I crave
and
Wrong not the heart whose joy thou
art
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