So I've been doing a lot of reading up on kilts, tartans, kilt accessories, and etc over the last month or so. And as is always true with someone's interpretation of things from the Celtic worlds, there are so many popular misconceptions it gets silly. Some get absorbed into the mystique, and every tradition has to start somewhere, so I'm not trying to argue that because the tradition is newer than we thought, it has less value. But it is interesting how very very recent some of the "traditional" aspects of kilt-wearing are.

Mostly I wanted to direct anyone interested over to a site by a curator at a tartan museum: In particular, to this page here. While his opening comment about the source of "the whole nine yards" isn't entirely accurate*, I do love that his research has found that the original kilted garments were a much more reasonable 4 yards or so in length, instead of the 8 or 9 yards that has become the modern standard.

"Most importantly, though, the myth needs to be dispelled that the recent trend towards a four yard kilt is a modern innovation, a novelty that will pass. In actuality, it is the eight yard kilt that is the novelty! As late as 1870, a typical regimental kilt only contained about five yards of cloth. As we get into the early twentieth century, we begin to see both knife pleating and pleating to the sett becoming popular, which resulted in kilts being made from six, seven, and even eight or more yards of cloth."

This makes me happy because I enjoy knowing the history of it (even if most people these days still expect a traditional kilt to be an 8 or 9 yard affair), and the way in which the 8-yard kilt was affected by fashion is fascinating. Much the same thing happened in terms of what tartans you are or are not supposed to wear--something that evolved out of weaving being an industry, not a historical means for clan-members to actually identify each other as one may have thought. And of course the whole of it is much newer than I think most people would think as well, though I did already know something about that.

Also, I wanted to get Sean a nice kilt, and I think that the 4 yard version will surely be lighter and more comfortable than having to carry around 8 yards of heavy wool.

Good stuff.

*We don't really know where the phrase "the whole nine yards" originated. The earliest documented use of the phrase is 1966. Most explanations have flaws--the ammunition belt idea is one of the most plausible, but does not entirely scan since the phrase is never used in anything we have from WWII. The phrase further seems to be specifically American, which would make one think of football, though 9 yards doesn't do one much good there either. Most theories are debunkable--ammunition belts were rarely 9 yards, suits do not in fact require 9 yards of fabric, cement mixers of the time in question had variable capacities typically much smaller than 9 yards, bolts of cloth are usually much longer than 9 yards, there are more than 9 yards on most ships...my favorite theory is the idea that it probably came from a dirty joke.