Daily kilt wearer---missing my jeans sort of...

[brewerpaul]

As the title states I wear a kilt, an Elkommando modern kilt, every day. I have a one mile walk to work so I find the kilt very comfortable. At work I change into scrubs and work in a cardiac cath lab. Besides work my ELkommando's are worn to the store, the pub, for walks and hikes and maybe this winter for running. Other times I have 3 traditional kilts from which to choose. These are worn for any and all activities such as a night at the pub, a night at the movie, visiting friends for dinner or any other activity that I would have usually worn jeans. My handsewn kilt is reserved for special occasions, stout beer wont come out of wool very easily. So you see I enjoy wearing kilts all the time, and my girlfriend likes me in them to boot.

As a child I had jeans as far back as I can remember. From the days my mom pulled up the jeans with the elastic waistband and rolled up the cuffs because they were bought for me to grow into to my years of well worn patched and thread bare jeans. Throughout my life I have managed to have one pair of Dockers or similar for weddings and funerals. Jeans were and are for me the easy lazymans way to wear clothes. Dressed up with a nice shirt, tie and tweed jacket, dressed down with t-shirt and boots, casual with a sweater for the movie, jeans did and do it all....except..... After wearing kilts I find them terribly uncomfortable. So the real dilemma is what is my kilt alternative to the ease of jeans.

Jeans being somewhat monochromatic, blue or some faded version of it, are easy to wear with anything. Kilts, especially of a tartan, are a bit more of a challenge. With my nice kilts I always feel I am putting on alot, not that I mind, to be dressed properly. I wouldnt wear one without my sporran, a belt, either kilt hose or some long wool socks. There rest depends on where I am going so shirts and shoes are variable. The thing is not all shirts work well with kilts as they do with jeans. My plaid flannel shirts that I wear in the winter just dont work unless the kilt is solid colour. I know all the alternative kilts out there and appreciate the design and effort put into them, they do look like a viable alternative. Yet I like the traditional design as opposed to the modified aprons, cargo pockets and rivets. My Elkommando's, though comfortable, fit in that alternative rage.

So my quest, and if anyone has had this quandary before please chime in and add your stories and solutions, is to find or make the put it on anytime with anything "jeans of kilts." If I find or make said kilt it will not be a lazy way of wearing kilts, I will add sporran and belt and proper socks. This winter, with the help of my girlfriend, I plan to learn to make a kilt. For this prototype I have spotted on the net some 12-13 oz hemp twill. It comes in nice subdued colours and looks perfect for a knock around fabric. My choice is to make a 5 yard box pleated solid colour kilt that will go with t-shirt, plaid flannel, western button down shirt, polo shirt, or even my period made wool 1800s shirt. If all goes well then I can make a couple of them in different colours, unlike the monochromatic jeans, and have a nice variety. Perhaps by spring Ill sport a traditional box pleated kilt in solid colour hemp twill and enjoy a brew with friends comfortable in the fact I have my "Jeans of kilt". All comments, advice, photos, stories are welcome so let me know what your jeans of kilts is, if you have one...

Below are a couple photos in my other kilts.

This is my Elkommando ready for a brew


The Elkommando in action


Hecktor Russell off the rack bought in Scotland


Stillwater Casual Weathered Mackenzie

[GMan]

My question is this, what are jeans?

Yet I do understand what you are saying. It is sort of nice to sneak around and become a member of the "norm" and wear those jeans. Like a quick in and out to the hardware store or something of that sort.

I look in my closet and I do see two pairs of pants taking up space, and one of them is a pair of jeans.

Glad that you are experiencing the joys of Kilting.

[piperdbh]

I think you need a denim kilt.

[brewerpaul]

I think you need a denim kilt.

Thanks, im sure there are some out there. It isnt even about the material but the ease of dressing, or in my case the laziness dressing. That is why ill,experiment with hemp twill.

[chrisupyonder]

I don't find it taking any longer to dress in my kilt than it does in trousers, which I only wear when going out shopping and it's very windy. In fact it sometimes takes longer to put trousers on because I have got used to putting hose and shoes on before my kilt but if wearing trousers, then I have to take my shoes off again!

Chris.

[brewerpaul]

I don't find it taking any longer to dress in my kilt than it does in trousers, which I only wear when going out shopping and it's very windy. In fact it sometimes takes longer to put trousers on because I have got used to putting hose and shoes on before my kilt but if wearing trousers, then I have to take my shoes off again!

Chris.

Thats great because I have gotten used to putting on my socks and shoes then my kilt. My one day a week of jeans I have to remember what order to assemble them in.

[brewerpaul]

Guess the gist of the thread was finding the jeans of kilts that is easy to put on with anything. I dont mind the hose, sporran and kilt pin, its just having a garment that mixes as well as jeans do. That would likely mean a solid colour kilt which I plan to make/buy in the near future.

[Jock Scot]

Okay as a chap that has never worn, yet alone owned, a pair of jeans I may not be of much help. But in kilt terms, those of us that have worn kilts for many a year and have also inherited a few along the way use the old and tatty ones for gardening and save the slightly newer and less tatty ones for smarter occasions.

Alright, alright,alright if you are new to kilt wearing and have not inherited a few kilts that option is not available. But my point is this, a kilt made from wool is not as delicate as people imagine, people have fought wars in wool kilts, up to their necks in muck and bullets and goodness knows what else and when hostilities have ceased most kilts have been smartened up pretty well.

Are modern wool kilts any different? Well, maybe a tad lighter in weight, but that is all. I have every confidence that a wool kilt will stand up to far more abuse than many of you imagine.

[Bugbear]

For what it's worth, I have gardened and worked with ceramics in my canvas kilt, and it went pretty well; it's supposedly duck cloth or something like that. I think if you can whip up a simple canvas kilt it would work out fine, and you wont have to worry about ripping it up or staining it so much.

I do wear jeans to work in and have all my life, like right now I am in the middle of digging up a bunch of trees with thorns on them and need some leg protection.