Quote Originally Posted by DWFII View Post
Not to put too fine a point on it...if I understood him correctly, Hamish recently commented that he has a pair of buckle shoes made in the style of the "Culloden era" and he wears them to formal events with alacrity.
Could that not mean that Ham is trying on a "new" fashion? Something like his new dayglo kilt? Of course he is in England and it was Scotland I was referring to.

As to the business with the PC, and whether to wear it during the day...that is undoubtedly determined by fashion and what is fashionable.
I was just wondering why we criticise someone who wears a PC during the day when it is/was traditional to do so (in some circumstances). Certainly it is not fashionable today, but why do we equate fashion to tradition in this case and not in others?

Maybe the impasse here is that, for myself at least, I'm just as much a rebel as those who wear non-traditional kilts, but in a different way. I am indifferent to "fashion" but I revere traditions and to some extent history. But there is a freedom that comes from knowing you've "got it right" and not caring what the moguls of fashion think.
I see no impasse here. I suppose most in this forum are rebels in one way or another. I've worn a kilt pretty well daily for the last fifty years. What kind of a rebel does that make me? What I am concerned with is the confusion of fashion with tradition, just as you are, but also with the fact that traditions evolve due to fashion in different places at different times. What is thought of -- for example -- as traditional Highland dress in the US today has already altered in Scotland and is now seen as "costume".