The world of Outlander is officially back on Starz in the 2025 TV schedule, with the Blood of My Blood prequel spinoff taking viewers a few centuries back in time. The new show follows the separate but similar stories of Brian Fraser and Ellen MacKenzie as star-crossed 18th century lovers, and the married Julia Moriston and Henry Beauchamp from the 20th century. Harriet Slater and Jamie Roy portray Ellen and Brian as the main 18th century Scots of the series, and Slater wore a very special tartan skirt for the premiere that I immediately fell in love with even before she told me the significance.
The cast of Outlander: Blood of My Blood was already working on Season 2 by the time they walked the carpet for the premiere of Season 1, and two stars were not only dressed to the nines, but dressed in ways that were pretty perfect for their characters. Jamie Roy, who plays Brian Fraser, wore a black kilt. Harriet Slater, who plays Ellen MacKenzie, wore a voluminous tartan skirt with a modern top. And unlike when paparazzi almost spoiled a major twist, the stars were ready for the cameras on premiere night! Take a look at Slater's standout skirt:
Anybody who tuned in to the first two episodes of Blood of My Blood (complete with a new theme song) already know why it’s particularly meaningful for the actress playing Ellen to wear that plaid, but you don’t have to know all the spoilers for the new prequel to see why her choice of tartan is appropriate for the world of Outlander. I spoke with Harriet Slater and Jamie Roy ahead of the Blood of My Blood premiere (as the wait is still on for Outlander Season 8), and the actress shed some light on the skirt:
I was obsessed with that design. It's a Scottish designer, Siobhan Mackenzie, and we both actually wore pieces of hers. Mine was a Mackenzie tartan skirt, which was brilliant because she's a Mackenzie designer. It was a Mackenzie tartan and I play a MacKenzie in the show. So that felt really special.
The English actress honored her Scottish character and a clearly skilled Scottish designer for the Outlander: Blood of My Blood premiere, and I’m willing to bet that I’m not the only one to fall in love with it. Jamie Roy, whose kilt was also one of Siobhan Mackenzie’s designs, shared his own reaction when he first saw the skirt:
We were at one of our events, actually, together, and then we saw it on the thing. I saw it first, and I was like, 'She has to wear that.' And then you already had the idea.
According to Siabhan Mackenzie’s Instagram account, Harriet Slater was wearing a “statement silk skirt crafted from Mackenzie tartan silk – a deliberate nod to her character – pleated from over ten metres of silk for effortless fluid movement.” For those of us on the American side of the pond, that’s more than thirty feet of silk! Slater went on:
My jaw was on the floor when it was up on a mannequin, up on a platform, and I was just staring up at it, like, 'That's the one.' I didn't know if she'd let me wear it, and then she was like, more than happy, and she designed you [to Jamie Roy] a kilt.
While Jamie Roy’s kilt certainly wasn’t as voluminous as Slater’s skirt, a lot of thought went into it. The designer’s Instagram account sheds more light on how the custom look was “crafted in couture metallic houndstooth” that was “tailored into a modern kilt and reflected in flashes on kilt pins adorning a sleek black jacket and waistcoat.”
His wasn’t traditional tartan, however, and for a good reason that ties to what his costars said about wearing a kilt every day on set to film. Roy shared:
She got me a real nice kilt. I wanted to wear a kilt, but I didn’t want to do anything too traditional, because I wear a kilt every day at work. [laughs] So something a little bit more modern. Being Black Brian, I think the whole black outfit seemed very appropriate.
His character is known as “Black Brian” in the Outlander world for the color of his hair rather than the color of his tartan, so the premiere look was a nice nod to Brian Fraser without the actor donning the same kind of plaid that he wears for work.
Outlander: Blood of My Blood kicked off on Friday, August 8 with two back-to-back episodes, and the first season will continue airing new episodes on Fridays at 8 p.m. ET on Starz. It’s probably fair to predict that nobody will be looking glamorous on Blood of My Blood for as long as action is set in 18th century Scotland, but only time will tell.
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