My family are usually O.K. with my regular kilt wearing. My Dad wears a kilt whenever he finds a remotely formal occasion and I'm slowly leaning him into wearing kilts whenever he feels like it.
My eldest sister is very proud of being Scottish and likes my wearing kilts often. (Although her wife finds it embarrassing and has requested I don't wear them out when she's there.)
But my other elder sister, let's call her 'L', is a very bossy, obnoxious person who has recently taken issue to my kilt-wearing.

She has told me repeatedly in the last two weeks that my denim Union Kilt 'Looks like a skirt’ and that she 'Just doesn't like it.'
I've ignored her and just generally been happy and comfortable in whatever kilt I wear.

Today, however, I walked into the living room wearing my Macdonald Modern kilt when she pipes up with 'You do realise that if it isn't tartan then it isn't a kilt?'

'Not so.' I replied. 'The first recorded instance of someone wearing a solid coloured kilt is a portrait of a Campbell chief in 1635 wearing a solid red kilt.'

'Yeah.' She says. 'But I was talking to someone in work the other day and they work for something that is a register of real Scottish tartans and they said...'

'The Scottish Tartans Authority. Yes, they do keep a register of tartans, but they are by no means the Kilt police.'

'...Well, anyway, the new first Minister is going to make a big legal body and if it's not on the list it's not a real tartan.'

'No offence, but whether or not they have a list of official tartans bears no relevance to what a kilt is. "Clan" tartans didn't exist until mills started naming their tartans after clans and fashion started to lean towards it to the point where clan chiefs would start officially adopting tartans. The ghillies at Balmoral used to wear tweed kilts rather than tartan.'

'Well, anyway, that denim one just looks silly. And kilts are all skirts anyway.'

'Yes. They are. They are men's skirts. Just like Jeans are made for cowboys only and no one else should wear them and slacks are just trousers for women who want to look like men.'

'Well I don't care anyway. I just wanted to make sure you knew you looked silly.'



What is it that prompts women in my family to feel that they need to inform you of exactly how they feel you look?
I never tell 'L' that she looks like a dreadful, aging goth and should stop wearing 4" platform heels that make her look like she is trying to be in the Spice girls.
I never tell her that she has no need for such heavy foundation with such dark lipstick.
And I never tell her that everyone thinks she has no brains because she spends so long painting her nails.





There's no way to explain to her that she is being rude or that she has no tact or that she doesn't actually know everything there is to know about the history of kilts.
And I wonder how she could have this attitude when she was brought up by the same man as me who owns every single Nigel Tranter book and who made sure my entire life that I knew where I came from and I was proud of it.





At least my Dad is here supporting me and reminding me that if ‘L’ isn’t interested in something it goes in one ear and out the other and she is always right.