I've been looking for Scottish Highlander garb for my sims to wear.
For the men and boys, a leine and great kilt, with ghillies, hose and flashes.
A leine is the shirt (almost as long as the kilt) worn with the kilt. A great kilt is nine yards of plaid (actually about 4-5 yards the way cloth is made today) worn a certain way. A man never wears his kilt above the knee. Only "wee lads" wear a kilt that short. Likewise, if you wear your kilt below the knee, you'll be accused of either exaggerating or boasting.
The guy on the left is wearing a great kilt. The guy on the right appears to be wearing a "small kilt", invented by an Englishman in the 18th century to keep his highland workers from getting caught in the millworks.
Story here (this sentence is a link).
Several pics showing the kind of clothing I'm talking about. The guy at upper left center is donning the plaid over a leine (linen or wool shirt that looks like that). The leine was both outer garment and undergarment. The socks are made from cutting woven plaid on the bias and sewing it together to make hose (tall socks). Another piece of plaid is used to tie them up over the calf so they stay up (no elastic, capisce?) Those socks are the ancestors of modern Argyle socks.
Ignore this guy's outfit below the knees. From the knees up, he's pretty authentic.
The woman above is wearing an "arisaid", which is essentially a woman's kilt, but worn well below the knee. Otherwise female garb is like male garb, except the woman's plaid is draped and worn differently than a man's.
In the first pic, the young lady is wearing her arisaid as a cloak. In the second, she wears it like an overdress. A woman's leine is worn longer than a man's and serves as a shirt, dress, and petticoat.
Shoes (ghillies) are sort of like a lace-up mocassin. Any sort of sandal which could be worn over socks might serve as a base for ghillies. Of course, you could probably get away with using certain kinds of mocassins or viking shoes as a model.
You'll find some examples of ghillies here at
Medieval Moccasins , a commercial site.
I have the one small kilt that's available for YA-AM, but it's really more of a
Utilikilt or
Sportkilt (both are brand names, but they also denote types of non-traditional kilt). I think I can use the Renaissance shirts from MTS for a leine, but highland wear is truly difficult to find, and womens' highland garb is practically nonexistent.
