The term highland dress describes the traditional, regional dress of the Highlands and Isles of Scotland. It is often characterised by tartan (plaid in North America) patterns in some form, including dress tartans which are modified versions which include white in place of a more prominent colour. Specific designs of shirt, jacket, bodice, and headwear may also be worn, along with clan badges and other devices indicating family and heritage.
Men's highland dress includes a kilt (or trews) of his clan tartan, along with either a tartan full plaid, fly plaid, or short belted plaid. Accessories may include a belt, sporran, sgian dubh, tartan socks, garters, kilt pins and clan badges. Ghillie brogues are the traditional, welted rand, thick soled shoes with no tongues and long laces. The laces are wrapped around and tied firmly above the wearer's ankles so that the shoes do not get pulled off in the mud. The shoes lack tongues so the wearer's feet can dry more quickly in the typically damp Scottish weather.
Women's highland dress is also based on the clan tartan, either that of her birth clan or, if married, that of her spouse's clan if she so chooses. Traditionally, women and girls do not wear kilts but may wear ankle-length tartan skirts, along with a colour-coordinated blouse and vest. A tartan earasaid, sash or tonnag (smaller shawl) may also be worn, usually pinned with a brooch, sometimes with a clan badge or other family or cultural motif. Women's shoes, also called ghillies, are more often the thin, foldable variety with sole and uppers cut from one piece of leather, now used mostly for indoor wear and dancing. Like the modern ghillie brogues, they also have no tongue, and the laces are wrapped around and tied above the wearer's ankles.