Earasaid

See also Highland dress, belted plaid.

A woman wearing a lachdan earasaid, and the typical hairstyle of a married woman (with a child in Matheson tartan kilt). Published 1845.
Back view of an earaisaid, showing top edge hanging below the waist. The quern rests on the earasaid of the woman on the right, possibly to catch grain. Each is wearing a tonnag (a tartan shawl) over her earasaid.[1][2] The stìom (ribbon worn around the head) indicates that the wearer is unmarried;[3] the older woman wears a bonnet (muidse [4]).[2]
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An earasaid,[5] or arasaid[5][note 1] is a draped garment worn in Scotland as part of traditional female highland dress. It is a belted plaid (literally, a belted blanket). Unlike belted plaids for men, it is worn at ankle length. Traditionally, it might be plain, striped [6] or tartan;[7] it might be brightly-coloured[7] or made of lachdan (dun or undyed) wool.[6] Modern highland dress makes earasaids from the same heraldic tartan cloth used for kilts.

Overview

In cut, it is a rectangle, longer than the wearer is tall, and wider than the wearer's waist circumference. The bottom edge is ankle length and the top edge hangs cape-like behind, or is used as a hood. The width is pleated until it will wrap around the waist with a small overlap. The pleats are held under a belt. The cloth below the belt hangs like a skirt; the cloth above the belt may be pinned or pulled over the head.

Near the end of the seventeenth century, Martin Martin gave a description of traditional women's clothing in the Western Islands, including the earasaid and its brooches and buckles.

"The ancient dress wore by the women, and which is yet wore by some of the vulgar, called arisad, is a white plaid, having a few small stripes of black, blue and red; it reached from the neck to the heels, and was tied before on the breast with a buckle of silver or brass, according to the quality of the person. I have seen some of the former of an hundred marks value; it was broad as any ordinary pewter plate, the whole curiously engraven with various animals etc. There was a lesser buckle which was wore in the middle of the larger, and above two ounces weight; it had in the centre a large piece of crystal, or some finer stone, and this was set all around with several finer stones of a lesser size. The plaid being pleated all round, was tied with a belt below the breast; the belt was of leather, and several pieces of silver intermixed with the leather like a chain. The lower end of the belt has a piece of plate about eight inches long, and three in breadth, curiously engraven; the end of which was adorned with fine stones, or pieces of red coral. They wore sleeves of scarlet cloth, closed at the end as men's vests, with gold lace round them, having plate buttons with fine stones. The head dress was a fine kerchief of linen strait (tight) about the head, hanging down the back taper-wise; a large lock of hair hangs down their cheeks above their breast, the lower end tied with a knot of ribbands."[8]

Historical example

Christina Young spun, dyed, and wove a surviving tartan plaid; it has the year "1726" and the maker's initials stitched into the edge.;[9] it dates from before the Highland dress was banned. A reconstruction in the Scottish Tartans Museum is displayed worn as an earasaid (image link).

References

Notes

  1. ↑ The traditional Gaelic spelling is earasaid or earrasaid, though in modern English usage the variation arasaid and the misspelling arisaid are both very common.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Tonnag at Dwelly's Gaelic Dictionary
  2. 1 2 "Women's Highland Dress, Scottish Tartan Authority"
  3. ↑ Stìom at Dwelly's Gaelic Dictionary
  4. ↑ Muidse at Dwelly's Gaelic Dictionary
  5. 1 2 "Earasaid" at Dwelly's Gaelic Dictionary
  6. 1 2 "The arisaid was usually of lachdan, or of a saffron hue, but it was also striped, with various colours according to taste." The Clans of the Scottish Highlands, James Logan, 1845, quoted by the Scottish Tartan Authority
  7. 1 2 “The usual habit of both sexes is the pladd; the women’s much finer, the colours more lively, and the square much larger than the men’s, and put me in the mind of the ancient Picts. This serves them for a veil and covers both head and body.” William Sachceverell, of the Isle of Mull, in 1688; quoted in A chronological list of tartan-related source texts
  8. ↑ Martin, Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, (1703), pp.208-209: quoted in Robertson, ed., Inventaires de la Royne Desscosse, Bannatyne Club, (1863) p.lxviii footnote.
  9. ↑ Young Tartan, catalog entry, The Scottish Register of Tartans
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