I started highland dancing October of 2019 and caught on very easily, now on the second last level and invited to attend a private scholarship weekend after a year and a half of competing. My design was inspired to have parts of highland dancing on my Irish dress, as I have parts of Irish dancing in my highland dress. My Irish dance teacher, Maureen Miller, gave our nationals team the old pins that she had on the old ceili costumes, so I use that as a broach on my highland aboyne costume. My new sailor’s hornpipe costume also has a clauddagh pendant sewn in on the neckline. I designed this dress so hopefully my Irish dress can reflect these elements and many more.
To incorporate highland into my Irish dress I made the bodice of the dress to look like a highland vest, just as my vest for highland looks like, a royal blue and silver lining. Within the jacket there are 10 buttons with a Scottish thistle engraved on it, just as my vest. These could be a 3-D element as Anthony is looking for. On the skirt there is a clauddagh that I have always loved on my previous dresses, and also represents the clauudagh pendant on my sailor’s hornpipe costume sewn into the neckline. And on the top left shoulder there is a broach like how the Miller pin is used as my aboyne broach, which is an easy thing to turn into a 3-D element as highland broaches are very large and thick. On the back there is a plaid similar to the style of my aboyne plaid for Highland. The plaid is very voloumous on stage, so I would love if we could play around with making the plaid “sash” have a 3-D effect as well. Additionally I love greek laurels and put them around the shoulder cuffs on the sleeve, which can have a 3-D look as well, more within fabric texture or maybe a light-weight metal. The back of the skirt also shows the unique and identifiable vest bottom with the 2 downward pointing V’s.