Advice needed!

[DireStraitsFan]

As per usual, a great host of advice from a great host of people. Thank you for all of the advice.

Sadly, I only ever saw the gentleman again from a distance, so I never got the opportunity to try any of your ideas out. I wish I had just said something to him earlier, but I just didn't want to come off like a know it all. It really was coming from a place of familiarity and concern. I remember (with embarrassment) wearing a terribly made kilt that I got at TRF to our local Celtic festival several years ago. No hose, no sporran. Just a terribly made, light weight, plaid (I don't think it's an actual tartan) poly kilt surrounded by all of these really well made, Scottish kilts. When I think back to that day, I picture what others probably saw: a guy in a plaid skirt. And I cringe. But, you live and you learn. I sought this site out because I wanted to represent my heritage in the most accurate way possible. But I have absolutely no desire to lord it over anyone else. I just felt really bad for the guy.

And the worst part is is that, except for that one flaw, he was a handsome, impeccably dressed older gentleman. Everything matched nicely. His sporran was pretty good, and worn at an appropriate height. And his calf-high, lace up moccasins looked great with the outfit. It seemed so odd for someone who obviously takes a care in how they appear in public to make such a mistake.

Hopefully, one way or another, he'll figure it out. Irving isn't far from Waxahachie. Perhaps he'll attend a fair, and some kind kilter will set him on the true and right path.

God bless you all.

[DireStraitsFan]

It would sure be easy to start a conversation by "asking if he had web access and had ever visited www.XMTS? "

"The rabble there are very welcoming and informative and can help explain that many persons accidentally wear their kilt with the pleats in the front, etc."

Just a thought...and don't have to feel like you are the dreaded 'kilt police'.

This actually had occurred to me. I thought i could start by asking him where he bought his kilt, introduce him to Xmarks, and then after establishing a rapport with him float the part about wearing one's pleats to rear being the accepted methodology.

It's great advice to be remembered for next time. Thx!

[Meggers]

well honestly, if he has all of those other things and knows how to wear them, its REALLY possible that he wore it backwards on purpose. I dont know how else it would make sense. Kind of a strange thing to do but I cant imagine him just NOT knowing, especially if he had the other accessories and knew how to properly wear those.

[DireStraitsFan]

I had this come up today at the renfaire, I saw a fellow in a kilt with the basting stitches still in. As I appoached him I saw he had it on 'sideways' as well, with the right hand buckles in front.

So I greeted him and pointed out the stiches and buckles etc, and he said "Thanks man, I didn't know", to which I replied "no worries, glad to help" and moved on. I saw him a couple hours later, and it looked like he had the stitches out, but still had it on side ways.

I know what you mean, Zardoz. I saw a photographer walking around Central Park this past St. Pat's day in an Irish National with the basting stitches still in. And in similar fashion, the guy was very well put together with nice white dress shirt and tan waistcoat, sporran, and hose. But with basting stitches in. I didn't stress over it too much. My son and I had a hard enough time that day with all of the off island, underage jack****. I'll NEVER, EVER wear a kilt in NYC on St. Patrick's Day again. The good experiences were heavily outweighed by the bad.

[DireStraitsFan]

well honestly, if he has all of those other things and knows how to wear them, its REALLY possible that he wore it backwards on purpose. I dont know how else it would make sense. Kind of a strange thing to do but I cant imagine him just NOT knowing, especially if he had the other accessories and knew how to properly wear those.

Right? I mean he even wore a waistcoat and no belt, which isn't a rule I follow but I know a lot of kilters around here subscribe to that method. I wish I could have taken a picture of him. The guy just had a look about him that screamed respect and reverence. He just seemed like a nice guy, which made me feel even worse for him.

Despite the evidence, I find it very difficult to believe that anyone who knows better would ever wear the kilt backwards.

[Mickey]

My dad recently received a kilt, courtesy CDNSushi, and the first thing he did was put it on backwards. He's a retired cop. His BIL (my uncle) is a retired firefighter. His neighbor is a piper, who piped at his retirement ceremony. The man has seen a lot of kilts in his time. He just never paid very close attention to how it is worn.

I think a large part of this is that in formal settings (which is how the average person sees people in kilts), the eye is not drawn to the kilt but to everything else or the entire package as a whole, which, lets face it, can be a bit overwhelming. A full dress piper, with pipes, is a very different animal (and a more commonly held vision) than a guy like me going to dinner in a kilt and polo shirt.

Anyway, it is never bad form to correct something embarrassing to someone. Even if it makes you feel like a "know it all" at the moment, sleep well that night knowing that they will thank you at the end of the day. Telling someone that they are wearing their clothes backwards or inside out, be it kilt, shirt, or trousers, is a lot different than informing someone that pleated slacks went out of fashion last year.

[Silent Raven]

One option without actually having to say anything and possibly embarrass the poor lad, is to wear your kilt and make sure he sees you.

Chances are he'll see you and think "is he backwards, or am I?" With that he'll likely hit 'kilt' in google and get a thousand right-way-around pictures, and he can quietly excuse himself to the mens and turn it around.

not every one who wears a kilt backwards next to some one who is wearing a kilt the correct way around either realizes or cares. a friend of mine from college wore a backwards kilt to graduation and got his picture taken with the piper, and still proceeded to wear it wrong the entire ceremony, had i been there i wouldve told him for sure.

[Jerry]

Perhaps you should tell him that he has his shoes on backwards because they are pointing to the back of his kilt.

[ForresterModern]

For god sakes tell the poor guy, in some simple yet inoffensive as possible way. I say this as the "victim" of two particularly embarrassing events many years ago that met with "southern" hospitality rather than frank and prompt correction.

My first week out of training in my first real job as a physician I was called away from my work desk/dictation station to do several consecutive procedures that took several hours of my time. I returned to my workstation to find a sticky note stuck to my dictaphone with the following anonymously written on it by one of my new but caring coworkers:
" you have a large booger in your left nostril" and timed only a few minutes after I had gotten up from my seat several hours earlier, and several face to booger patient encounters in between the writing of the note and my finding it. Quick trip to the bathroom showed a sizable now dried and crusty greenie still strongly and quite visibly ensnared in the hairs of my left nostril, exactly as described. I had a meeting with all the coworkers that afternoon and explained to them that no matter how embarrassing it might be to me to have been told face to face there was said booger in place, it was made manifold worse embarrassment by knowing that I had instead walked around with it for several more hours before finding out about it, and that in the future I would appreciate a private but prompt and direct notification. God love Southern Hospitality because barely 1 month later a virtually identical situation arose, this time with my fly open for several hours, again discovered only by an anonymous note on a greatly delayed basis. From then on it bacame a bit of a joking ritual to have one of the techs assigned to "monitor" my grooming actively upon my arrival at work each morning and to perform a full muster inspection prior to engaging my first patients of the day. Needless to say this endeared me to my coworkers forever and immortalized the use of sticky notes for all sorts of pokes of fun and embarrasment. Cannot count the number of times I recieved a "smiley face" on a sticky note with the comment "looking good today" thereafter.

Yes please tell the poor chap and minimize his embarrassment as soon as possible. For all we know he may wear it out that way again one or more times in the future until someone has the heart and gumption to tell him, or he fortuitously finds out on his own.

[Bob C]

I had this come up today at the renfaire, I saw a fellow in a kilt with the basting stitches still in. As I appoached him I saw he had it on 'sideways' as well, with the right hand buckles in front.

So I greeted him and pointed out the stiches and buckles etc, and he said "Thanks man, I didn't know", to which I replied "no worries, glad to help" and moved on. I saw him a couple hours later, and it looked like he had the stitches out, but still had it on side ways.

I had almost exactly the same thing at a festival. He had it it the right way around, but with the basting stitches still in. I quietly told him his kilt looked great, but that he should take out the basting stitches and free up the pleats. I showed him my pleats and he thanked me. Saw him the following year and he had corrected the situation.

I'd skip the jokes and get to the point. Doing it with a smile is best.