A Mid-18th Century Picture Gallery of Women’s Clothing( Caveat: Please be aware of the moral messages the painter is trying to convey in these pictures.  Often, painters would show someone wearing items a certain way — for instance, stays unlaced or no stays to indicate a ‘loose’ woman — to make a point.)  Previous Next The Paris Street Cries by Bouchardon; 1737-1742 (Figs 178-221). This is a large series that is spread out in different collections. I have some of the images posted here. Broken Eggs by Jean Baptiste Greuze (1756)– look at the kertch-like item worn by the old woman; interesting parallel to the Scottish kertch. Le Geste Napolitain by Jean…

People from the Scottish Lowlands (including William Wallace and Robert the Bruce) most likely wore clothing in keeping with contemporary fashions in England and France.  No, Wallace didn’t wear a kilt; and he certainly didn’t wear woad. The Scottish Highlands were considered a backwater of Europe, and not worth much attention, and consequently there are few descriptions or drawings of what people wore. In addition, few clothing remains have been found. All of this makes reconstructing a workable outfit rather difficult.  Even in the later periods, documentation, especially for womens’ clothing, is sketchy.  At the same time, the Highlands were not absolutely isolated from the clothing trends that affected the rest of Europe, so…

It is hard to emphasize enough the lack of information about clothing in the Scottish Highlands until the middle of the 1600s, but around the late 1500s to early 1600s, Scottish Highland clothing became more distinct from Irish clothing of the same period.  Whereas the Irish began to wear clothing that more closely resembles that of the common English peasantry, the Scottish Highlanders adopted and kept several forms of clothing such as the bonnet and plaid, both of which were originally worn in the Lowlands and then migrated into the Highlands, where they developed their own distinct forms.  Moreover, checkered cloth, which was worn to some extent in Celtic cultures…