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in
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Jamie McCrimmon Breakdown
Jamie McCrimmon Break down, AKA lots of pretty pictures of Jamie.
I've been meaning to put together a Jamie McCrimmon break down for a long time now. honorarydoctor keeps hounding me about it, so you can thank him for getting me to finally put it together. :D
Unlike a lot of later companions (and Doctors), Jamie went through a lot of costume changes, not all of which I may cover here. (However I do intend to edit this post with additional costume parts from other serials, etc. with time, so you can always check back or ask questions if you're curious about any given costume part.)
Obviously the most iconic part of any Jamie costume is his kilt. What is the exact tartan?
The Kilt:
This is the best color photo of 1960s Jamie's kilt I've ever come across. With this picture and the helpful research of warmcanofcoke and lordother, we narrowed it down to the (of course rare) MacDonnell of Keppoch 1906 variant Modern Tartan. I even asked Frazer Hines (Jamie's original actor) whether or not he thought this was the exact tartan he wore. Although it was a very long time ago, he replied with, "it certainly does Van.i wish i'd kept it now!" There is a chance this is not the exact tartan, but it is very likely.
However, because this is such a rare variant and thus very expensive to get made into a kilt, there are a lot of variations you can go for. Any significantly red and green tartan is likely to work. (Most generic Stewart tartans look "good enough.")
If you want a slightly more accurate and affordable piece, you can go with one of his variants.
This is the tartan that I currently use for my Jamie cosplay. It's the MacGregor tartan. (There are modern and hunting variations, so make sure yours matches up.) This is a semi-rarer tartan, but not impossible to find. Of course, he wore this kilt (and that vest) only for this Radio Times photoshoot, so it's worth keeping in mind.
There is also, of course, his philabeg with flyplaid/great kilt from The Five Doctors and The Two Doctors.
Although very similar to the MacGregor, it is not the same tartan. I've never exactly identified it, but warmcanofcoke's research indicates it may be the Princess Margaret Rose.
It should perhaps be noted that he wears two kilts in The Two Doctors. I have never put in any research into this alternate kilt he wears early on in The Two Doctors as I'm not at all fond of the tartan for it, but it's worth mentioning.
As an aside, Jamie wears a philabeg/belt kilt/short kilt. Many traditional kilts are very high-waisted, terminating above the navel. Jamie's hits much lower, well below the navel, around the hips. If you get a regular high-waisted kilt, you will have to wear your shirts over it and use the belt to hide the place you've tucked it in. SportKilt.com (who I mention later as a affordable US kilt distributor), has shorter waisted style kilts.
When ordering a kilt, you will want to make sure it has two side buckles, belt loops as well as fringe along the apron. I would recommend against getting pockets added if they offer that as an option, as you can use your sporran for storage. Get your pleats sewn down.
Jamie also wears a kilt pin later on. Most kilts come with a kilt pin to keep the apron from flying open. Jamie has a very plain kilt pin. (It looks like a giant safety pin.) You can find elaborate, ornate kilt pins, but Jamie's is just the most basic kind, in silver, worn on the lower right (our left) of his kilt apron.
--
The Sporran:
Jamie first wears his sporran in "The Web of Fear" so if you don't want to get/can't find a sporran, you have a lot of serials (a whole season!) before he starts wearing it. If you do want to wear his sporran, here are some tips. Although I have searched high and low for a near replica of Jamie's sporran, I've never come across anything very accurate. I eventually ended up making my own sporran based on a bunch of caps of the original.
(my attempt to redraw it)
The silver bar at the top is called a "cantle" and it should be noted that Jamie's is a dark metallic color. It's not bright silver, but more of a pewter color. (In B&W it often photographs black.) It has several rivets and a central one that is somewhat artistic.
My own recreation is only approximate.
I had a friend lithrael construct my cantle herself from wood, metallic paint, rivets and such, attached to a purse clip. I then built the rest of the sporran around it with leather, rabbit fur, silk lining and added tassles. It should be of note that Jamie's tassles are very dark brown while the leather is black. There are six tassles in total, in three sets of two. (Two on the left, two in the middle, two on the right.) The rabbit fur is is white. (Sometimes it looks black and white, but I'm fairly confident it's just the tassles against the fur and not different color fur.)
You can find a ton of sporrans online for a variety of prices. SportKilt has a few decent examples.
$59.50 for this semi-close approximation.
It might be worth noting that SportKilt is a pretty decent kilt supply place within the US. The kilts are not the heavy wool of traditional kilts, they have elastic waists and a Sportkilt logo, but they look nice, carry the MacGregor tartan, and are generally a fraction of the cost of an "authentic" kilt. (I am not getting paid for endorsing them, though I swear I should be! XD)
I wasn't willing to pay $60 for something that only looked half right, so I went the route of creating my own sporran, but this is definitely an option. I'd highly recommend googling around, and checking eBay and Etsy for cheaper used sporrans.
--
Belts:
Jamie's kind of weird with the way he wears his sporran. Usually a sporran is attached to the kilt via a belt and chain. Most sporrans come with a chain attachment. Jamie, however, wears a regular belt (black) around his waist, and then threads his sporran through a brown belt that hangs over his groin. If you look closely at him from behind when he's not wearing his belt, you can actually see the brown belt's buckle against the small of his back, proving he's just wearing a belt backward.
--
Sgian Dubh:
Jamie often wears a Sgian Dubh, which is a traditional Scottish dagger worn at the hip of the kilt, or near the ankle. (You can see a great shot of his here.) Because of many rules govern carrying knives/weapons in the United States, I've never spent much time researching his Sgian Dubh or purchasing one to wear with my kilt. (Also because, wih my vest on, you couldn't see it anyway.)
Small, but well lit picture of it.
His handle is white, probably made of bone or ivory, and it straps to his right (our left) side. My recommendation would be to recreate a handle-only version for wearing to conventions. If you get an actual Sgian Dubh, I would highly recommend keeping it peace-tied when you wear it. Be aware of convention policies with regards to bladed-weapons, and never try to wear one on an airplane.
--
Now that the kilt and accesories are squared away, we can mix-and-match the tops. With only a few exceptions where he's put into trousers, Jamie wears the same kilt from "The Highlanders" to "The War Games" (i.e. his entire 1960s TV run), switching to alternate kilts only with the specials. So if you're putting together a 1960s TV run Jamie, you don't need to worry about changing kilts with each new top.
The Vest:
After the kilt, I think Jamie's vest is one of his most iconic pieces of clothing. He wears it in many serials, over a variety of different tops. With a vest and the kilt, you can put on almost any shirt and pull off a convincing Jamie cosplay.
I've looked long and hard for a suitable match to his vest with only a small amount of luck. Unless recreating it yourself, your best bet is to search the internet for a similar style. There are several vintage styles that match Jamie's vest. Search options are "boho vest", "bohemian vest" or "fur boho vest" or "fur bohemian vest." You might try "tibetan wool vest" or "mongolian wool vest." Prefixing these with "vintage" also adds good results, as do combinations of the search terms. (i.e. "vintage mongolian boho vest")
However, after many long years of searching, I think I've finally discovered that his vest is not Tibetan or Mongolian wool at all. It is, of course, a much rarer Jacob sheep hide. This comes from a lot of close scrutiny of his vest.
In "The Wheel in Space" Jamie is seen wearing a strange "cow spotted" furry vest.
At one point he takes this vest off, leaving it on a bed.
When it puts it on later, though...
... it's revealed to be the same ol' usual vest! Of course, it's obvious to see now that the "cow spotted" one is just the regular one turned inside-out. The remarkable thing though is that the wool is spotted the way it is! Cows obviously don't have furry hides the way Jamie's vest implies, but then, neither do sheep have spotted wool.
Or do they?
Baaaaaah!
So, that's a Jacob Sheep, and after look at a lot of pictures of their hides, I'm pretty convinced that that's what lines the inside of Jamie's vest. Of course Jacob sheep are rare, and so their hides run about $125 a pop, uncured, and not factoring in shipping costs from the UK (where most are raised and bred). Perhaps someday I will break down and buy a Jacob Sheep hide to match up the spots on Jamie's vest and recreate it by hand, but I haven't yet.
The main color of Jamie's vest wool is dark brown. (It often photographs black.)
(This also shows the brown of the tassles.)
The vest itself is a golden-brown color, with red embroidery.
The vest also has two exterior style pockets, which are functional as Jamie often has his hands in them.
It's worth noting that his vest does not have any fur at the sleeves or along the bottom or collar. Most boho style vests do. My recommendation would be to go for a brown wool and add the white bits in yourself if you're going for accuracy. However, my current Jamie cosplay has a completely inaccurate boho style vest, and yet it still reads quite accurately to most people. So, in this regard, "close enough" might actually be "good enough." It's really up to you.
--
Shoes & Socks:
Jamie tends to wear a pair of high-top hiking shoes with white laces for most of his run. They may be ghillie brogues (traditional Scottish shoes), but I have never found a pair that matched accurately.
The laces are white or cream and lace up with exterior eyelets. I use a modern pair of hiking shoes similar to these.
Although kilt hose exist, I've never been convinced that any of Jamie's socks were kilt hose. Early on he wears socks pulled up fairly high to his knees, or sometimes doubled over with a pair pulled up and a pair rolled down. (See this photo again.) However, they don't have kilt/tartan flashes, so they don't seem like something specific you need to get; any socks in the right length/colors should work.
--
Shirts & Ascots:
Jamie does alternate through a lot of shirts. This is really sort of "Whatever you want" section. In "The Mind Robber" he wears a basic black polo/turtleneck under his vest. In "Evil of the Daleks", "The Moonbase" and "The Faceless Ones" he wears a heather-grey polo/turtleneck, with no vest or sporran. In later serials (such as "The Invasion" and "The Wheel in Space") he wears a tan/beige long-sleeve shirt under his vest with a colorful silk neck scarf, or ascot.
I think it is virtually impossible to track down exactly what he wore with regard to brand names, and even if you could they are vintage and thus probably near-impossible to find, so I'd study what photos (color or otherwise) you can and look for anything that comes close.
In "The Seeds of Death" he wears a Jacobite black lace-up shirt with black laces at the throat and cuffs.
This particular outfit allows you can see that he is also often wearing a round medallion on a chain around his neck. It's hard to capture in screenshots, but it's easy to see when you watch the episode. Although we never get a close look of it, my guess is that it's a St. Christopher's medallion, as they were very popular back in the 1960s. (Ringo Starr was known to wear one.)
He also tends to wear a brown-leather wrist-watch in later serials as well. A minor but fun thing to note.
His watch. Also a good shot of the exterior pockets on his vest.
Some of his costumes are likely authentic vintage brands, such as the coat he wears in "The Abominable Snowmen" with Victoria.
Other times I assume they are custom-made costume pieces for the episode, such as in "The Underwater Menace":
Vintage wet suit? I don't know.
Or "Enemy of the World" in which case you'll just have to create them yourself.
He also wears this nice shirt, scarf and vest ensemble in "Enemy of the World."
And, of course, there's always this thing:
From "The Macra Terror" complete with ...
... garland for the Highland fling. :D
--
Hair:
Lastly, I'll just touch on Jamie's hair. It's a pretty basic style, so you might be able to pull it off with your own hair naturally. Mine is too wavy to really work, so I used a wig and cut it into a mop-top look. It's almost exactly a "Beatle mop" style, so a good quality Beatle wig might work. It does change slightly through the years, becoming more Beatle-like in the later serials. (You can see in the photos from "The Underwater Menace" how different it used to look early on!) I no longer remember the wig I used for Jamie, but it shouldn't be too hard to find one. It's a very common, basic style, and any wig shop should have something similar in a medium dark brown. If they don't, you can pick up something for probably $30-40 on eBay. Good luck!
All in all, there are lots of choices. Hopefully I've covered most of them adequately enough to give you an idea of how to go about constructing your own Jamie costume, but if you have any questions (or other helpful tips) feel free to comment and let me know!
I've been meaning to put together a Jamie McCrimmon break down for a long time now. honorarydoctor keeps hounding me about it, so you can thank him for getting me to finally put it together. :D
Unlike a lot of later companions (and Doctors), Jamie went through a lot of costume changes, not all of which I may cover here. (However I do intend to edit this post with additional costume parts from other serials, etc. with time, so you can always check back or ask questions if you're curious about any given costume part.)
Obviously the most iconic part of any Jamie costume is his kilt. What is the exact tartan?
The Kilt:
This is the best color photo of 1960s Jamie's kilt I've ever come across. With this picture and the helpful research of warmcanofcoke and lordother, we narrowed it down to the (of course rare) MacDonnell of Keppoch 1906 variant Modern Tartan. I even asked Frazer Hines (Jamie's original actor) whether or not he thought this was the exact tartan he wore. Although it was a very long time ago, he replied with, "it certainly does Van.i wish i'd kept it now!" There is a chance this is not the exact tartan, but it is very likely.
However, because this is such a rare variant and thus very expensive to get made into a kilt, there are a lot of variations you can go for. Any significantly red and green tartan is likely to work. (Most generic Stewart tartans look "good enough.")
If you want a slightly more accurate and affordable piece, you can go with one of his variants.
This is the tartan that I currently use for my Jamie cosplay. It's the MacGregor tartan. (There are modern and hunting variations, so make sure yours matches up.) This is a semi-rarer tartan, but not impossible to find. Of course, he wore this kilt (and that vest) only for this Radio Times photoshoot, so it's worth keeping in mind.
There is also, of course, his philabeg with flyplaid/great kilt from The Five Doctors and The Two Doctors.
Although very similar to the MacGregor, it is not the same tartan. I've never exactly identified it, but warmcanofcoke's research indicates it may be the Princess Margaret Rose.
It should perhaps be noted that he wears two kilts in The Two Doctors. I have never put in any research into this alternate kilt he wears early on in The Two Doctors as I'm not at all fond of the tartan for it, but it's worth mentioning.
As an aside, Jamie wears a philabeg/belt kilt/short kilt. Many traditional kilts are very high-waisted, terminating above the navel. Jamie's hits much lower, well below the navel, around the hips. If you get a regular high-waisted kilt, you will have to wear your shirts over it and use the belt to hide the place you've tucked it in. SportKilt.com (who I mention later as a affordable US kilt distributor), has shorter waisted style kilts.
When ordering a kilt, you will want to make sure it has two side buckles, belt loops as well as fringe along the apron. I would recommend against getting pockets added if they offer that as an option, as you can use your sporran for storage. Get your pleats sewn down.
Jamie also wears a kilt pin later on. Most kilts come with a kilt pin to keep the apron from flying open. Jamie has a very plain kilt pin. (It looks like a giant safety pin.) You can find elaborate, ornate kilt pins, but Jamie's is just the most basic kind, in silver, worn on the lower right (our left) of his kilt apron.
--
The Sporran:
Jamie first wears his sporran in "The Web of Fear" so if you don't want to get/can't find a sporran, you have a lot of serials (a whole season!) before he starts wearing it. If you do want to wear his sporran, here are some tips. Although I have searched high and low for a near replica of Jamie's sporran, I've never come across anything very accurate. I eventually ended up making my own sporran based on a bunch of caps of the original.
(my attempt to redraw it)
The silver bar at the top is called a "cantle" and it should be noted that Jamie's is a dark metallic color. It's not bright silver, but more of a pewter color. (In B&W it often photographs black.) It has several rivets and a central one that is somewhat artistic.
My own recreation is only approximate.
I had a friend lithrael construct my cantle herself from wood, metallic paint, rivets and such, attached to a purse clip. I then built the rest of the sporran around it with leather, rabbit fur, silk lining and added tassles. It should be of note that Jamie's tassles are very dark brown while the leather is black. There are six tassles in total, in three sets of two. (Two on the left, two in the middle, two on the right.) The rabbit fur is is white. (Sometimes it looks black and white, but I'm fairly confident it's just the tassles against the fur and not different color fur.)
You can find a ton of sporrans online for a variety of prices. SportKilt has a few decent examples.
$59.50 for this semi-close approximation.
It might be worth noting that SportKilt is a pretty decent kilt supply place within the US. The kilts are not the heavy wool of traditional kilts, they have elastic waists and a Sportkilt logo, but they look nice, carry the MacGregor tartan, and are generally a fraction of the cost of an "authentic" kilt. (I am not getting paid for endorsing them, though I swear I should be! XD)
I wasn't willing to pay $60 for something that only looked half right, so I went the route of creating my own sporran, but this is definitely an option. I'd highly recommend googling around, and checking eBay and Etsy for cheaper used sporrans.
--
Belts:
Jamie's kind of weird with the way he wears his sporran. Usually a sporran is attached to the kilt via a belt and chain. Most sporrans come with a chain attachment. Jamie, however, wears a regular belt (black) around his waist, and then threads his sporran through a brown belt that hangs over his groin. If you look closely at him from behind when he's not wearing his belt, you can actually see the brown belt's buckle against the small of his back, proving he's just wearing a belt backward.
--
Sgian Dubh:
Jamie often wears a Sgian Dubh, which is a traditional Scottish dagger worn at the hip of the kilt, or near the ankle. (You can see a great shot of his here.) Because of many rules govern carrying knives/weapons in the United States, I've never spent much time researching his Sgian Dubh or purchasing one to wear with my kilt. (Also because, wih my vest on, you couldn't see it anyway.)
Small, but well lit picture of it.
His handle is white, probably made of bone or ivory, and it straps to his right (our left) side. My recommendation would be to recreate a handle-only version for wearing to conventions. If you get an actual Sgian Dubh, I would highly recommend keeping it peace-tied when you wear it. Be aware of convention policies with regards to bladed-weapons, and never try to wear one on an airplane.
--
Now that the kilt and accesories are squared away, we can mix-and-match the tops. With only a few exceptions where he's put into trousers, Jamie wears the same kilt from "The Highlanders" to "The War Games" (i.e. his entire 1960s TV run), switching to alternate kilts only with the specials. So if you're putting together a 1960s TV run Jamie, you don't need to worry about changing kilts with each new top.
The Vest:
After the kilt, I think Jamie's vest is one of his most iconic pieces of clothing. He wears it in many serials, over a variety of different tops. With a vest and the kilt, you can put on almost any shirt and pull off a convincing Jamie cosplay.
I've looked long and hard for a suitable match to his vest with only a small amount of luck. Unless recreating it yourself, your best bet is to search the internet for a similar style. There are several vintage styles that match Jamie's vest. Search options are "boho vest", "bohemian vest" or "fur boho vest" or "fur bohemian vest." You might try "tibetan wool vest" or "mongolian wool vest." Prefixing these with "vintage" also adds good results, as do combinations of the search terms. (i.e. "vintage mongolian boho vest")
However, after many long years of searching, I think I've finally discovered that his vest is not Tibetan or Mongolian wool at all. It is, of course, a much rarer Jacob sheep hide. This comes from a lot of close scrutiny of his vest.
In "The Wheel in Space" Jamie is seen wearing a strange "cow spotted" furry vest.
At one point he takes this vest off, leaving it on a bed.
When it puts it on later, though...
... it's revealed to be the same ol' usual vest! Of course, it's obvious to see now that the "cow spotted" one is just the regular one turned inside-out. The remarkable thing though is that the wool is spotted the way it is! Cows obviously don't have furry hides the way Jamie's vest implies, but then, neither do sheep have spotted wool.
Or do they?
Baaaaaah!
So, that's a Jacob Sheep, and after look at a lot of pictures of their hides, I'm pretty convinced that that's what lines the inside of Jamie's vest. Of course Jacob sheep are rare, and so their hides run about $125 a pop, uncured, and not factoring in shipping costs from the UK (where most are raised and bred). Perhaps someday I will break down and buy a Jacob Sheep hide to match up the spots on Jamie's vest and recreate it by hand, but I haven't yet.
The main color of Jamie's vest wool is dark brown. (It often photographs black.)
(This also shows the brown of the tassles.)
The vest itself is a golden-brown color, with red embroidery.
The vest also has two exterior style pockets, which are functional as Jamie often has his hands in them.
It's worth noting that his vest does not have any fur at the sleeves or along the bottom or collar. Most boho style vests do. My recommendation would be to go for a brown wool and add the white bits in yourself if you're going for accuracy. However, my current Jamie cosplay has a completely inaccurate boho style vest, and yet it still reads quite accurately to most people. So, in this regard, "close enough" might actually be "good enough." It's really up to you.
--
Shoes & Socks:
Jamie tends to wear a pair of high-top hiking shoes with white laces for most of his run. They may be ghillie brogues (traditional Scottish shoes), but I have never found a pair that matched accurately.
The laces are white or cream and lace up with exterior eyelets. I use a modern pair of hiking shoes similar to these.
Although kilt hose exist, I've never been convinced that any of Jamie's socks were kilt hose. Early on he wears socks pulled up fairly high to his knees, or sometimes doubled over with a pair pulled up and a pair rolled down. (See this photo again.) However, they don't have kilt/tartan flashes, so they don't seem like something specific you need to get; any socks in the right length/colors should work.
--
Shirts & Ascots:
Jamie does alternate through a lot of shirts. This is really sort of "Whatever you want" section. In "The Mind Robber" he wears a basic black polo/turtleneck under his vest. In "Evil of the Daleks", "The Moonbase" and "The Faceless Ones" he wears a heather-grey polo/turtleneck, with no vest or sporran. In later serials (such as "The Invasion" and "The Wheel in Space") he wears a tan/beige long-sleeve shirt under his vest with a colorful silk neck scarf, or ascot.
I think it is virtually impossible to track down exactly what he wore with regard to brand names, and even if you could they are vintage and thus probably near-impossible to find, so I'd study what photos (color or otherwise) you can and look for anything that comes close.
In "The Seeds of Death" he wears a Jacobite black lace-up shirt with black laces at the throat and cuffs.
This particular outfit allows you can see that he is also often wearing a round medallion on a chain around his neck. It's hard to capture in screenshots, but it's easy to see when you watch the episode. Although we never get a close look of it, my guess is that it's a St. Christopher's medallion, as they were very popular back in the 1960s. (Ringo Starr was known to wear one.)
He also tends to wear a brown-leather wrist-watch in later serials as well. A minor but fun thing to note.
His watch. Also a good shot of the exterior pockets on his vest.
Some of his costumes are likely authentic vintage brands, such as the coat he wears in "The Abominable Snowmen" with Victoria.
Other times I assume they are custom-made costume pieces for the episode, such as in "The Underwater Menace":
Vintage wet suit? I don't know.
Or "Enemy of the World" in which case you'll just have to create them yourself.
He also wears this nice shirt, scarf and vest ensemble in "Enemy of the World."
And, of course, there's always this thing:
From "The Macra Terror" complete with ...
... garland for the Highland fling. :D
--
Hair:
Lastly, I'll just touch on Jamie's hair. It's a pretty basic style, so you might be able to pull it off with your own hair naturally. Mine is too wavy to really work, so I used a wig and cut it into a mop-top look. It's almost exactly a "Beatle mop" style, so a good quality Beatle wig might work. It does change slightly through the years, becoming more Beatle-like in the later serials. (You can see in the photos from "The Underwater Menace" how different it used to look early on!) I no longer remember the wig I used for Jamie, but it shouldn't be too hard to find one. It's a very common, basic style, and any wig shop should have something similar in a medium dark brown. If they don't, you can pick up something for probably $30-40 on eBay. Good luck!
All in all, there are lots of choices. Hopefully I've covered most of them adequately enough to give you an idea of how to go about constructing your own Jamie costume, but if you have any questions (or other helpful tips) feel free to comment and let me know!