Not exactly a poll, but a question-How often are you the only one kilted?

[RCAnderson]

Thank you Angela Kaye Bodine.

[Tarheel]

Living in a college town gives me the opportunity to wear my kilt anywhere and get more positive than negative reactions. The local folks know and accept my "uniqueness" but would never go kilted themselves. I'm so sad for them. Only the special events (Celtic days, tartan days or events at the Univ.) will find others kilted here. I feel I am a wool island in a sea of camouflaged Carhart denim.
I still wear more of the complete kit in public (vest, sporran, wing-tip Rockport shoes, etc.) than the boots, t-shirts and bandanas that I will for work. As the years pass I expect to change that behavior.

[tpa]

We may be deemed odd by some and certainly different going out and about doing our daily chores in a kilt, but to me it is a lot more acceptable than wandering around town in gear that is really intended for use in the countryside when hunting or stalking either with gun or camera i.e.: camouflage clothing or even worse displaying both the wrong sort of cheek and definitely the wrong sort of cleavage with trousers at half mast. To me that is decidedly odd and my son is one of the culprits.

[Nick Sweeney]

Do you go to gatherings in your kilt where you are the only one? More often than not I am the only one kilted, or it's just my son and I.

How do you decide when to wear your kilt? If I'm not at work or the event isn't designed for a kilt (the pool, or jump zones).

wear the kilt for daily casual wear Yes, I strive for every day I'm not at work.
wear the kilt for work No, as I have a uniform issued.
wear the kilt for "social occasions" (i.e, out drinking, to parties, etc) Yes, as much as possible
wear the kilt to events- weddings, balls, the opera, the ballet, shows No, as I own a pub kilt and not a fancier wool kilt.
wear the kilt to funerals Same answer as above.

Would you wear the kilt to a meeting at your bank, where you wanted to borrow money, or to a first weekend away to your significant other's parents'? ​Yes, yes I would.

[New World Czech]

We may be deemed odd by some and certainly different going out and about doing our daily chores in a kilt, but to me it is a lot more acceptable than wandering around town in gear that is really intended for use in the countryside when hunting or stalking either with gun or camera i.e.: camouflage clothing or even worse displaying both the wrong sort of cheek and definitely the wrong sort of cleavage with trousers at half mast. To me that is decidedly odd and my son is one of the culprits.

You forgot to mention those who go about their business in pajamas and bedroom slippers. Unless that does not happen in the UK, it happens quite often here.

[Sir Robert]

When I wear my kilt to Highland Games and Burn's Night I am not alone. Otherwise yes I stand alone.

[tpa]

You forgot to mention those who go about their business in pajamas and bedroom slippers. Unless that does not happen in the UK, it happens quite often here.

You're right, I did forget to mention that and yes it does happen here. Due to the climate probably less so than in your part of the world. My youngest daughter is the guilty party here, she claims it's day wear, but it looks identical to what she wears in bed. Many's the time I've suggested she gets dressed, only to be informed she is and out she then goes.

The saying: "fashion is so awful they have to change it every 6 months" springs to mind.

[thecompaqguy]

I wear my kilt to social events, usually the only one kilted but it's nice to stand out from the crowd now and then. Worn my kilt to a wedding, even contemporary kilt suit to other functions. I wouldn't wear it to work, my work involves bending, lifting, crawling under desk sorting out network cabling, so wouldn't want to ruin it. I wear one casually in place of jeans now and then when with friends and family. I would not wear one to a funeral as I would not like to draw unnecessary attention, out of respect. As for securing a loan with my bank, I doubt it would raise my credit score or impress the 'personal banker'

[NorseCelt]

About three years ago I started wearing the kilt nearly full time. At my full time job I wasn't allowed to wear a kilt, but if I wasn't working I was in a kilt. Since they let me go in May of last year I've been a full time kilt wearer. I won't be wearing a kilt to job interviews, but once I have the job I'll be finding out how often I can wear the kilt to work.
I haven't worn pants in over nine months, and I really don't miss them.

Do you go to gatherings in your kilt where you are the only one?
Almost always. Unless it's the Highland Games, the Ren Faire, or something similar.

How do you decide when to wear your kilt?
Should I get dressed today?

In more or less ascending order, do you
wear the kilt for daily casual wear?
Yes I do.

wear the kilt for work?
One of the theatres that I worked at allowed me to wear a utility kilt, if I so desired. So I did. Unfortunately the theatre that employed me full time was at a high school, and the administration didn't want staff or students wearing kilts.

wear the kilt for "social occasions" (i.e, out drinking, to parties, etc)?
Almost always. It's actually become expected of me.

wear the kilt to events- weddings, balls, the opera, the ballet, shows?
I've worn kilts to weddings, shows, and concerts. I don't typically attend balls or the ballet, unless I'm working sound, lights or flyrail for the ballet. I wear it to the types of dances I'm likely to attend (mostly barn dances.) I wore a kilt while working backstage on the last opera that I worked.

wear the kilt to funerals?
I'm fortunate that I haven't had to attend a funeral since I started wearing the kilt nearly full time. Most of my friends know how I feel about the kilt. All of my relatives that I'm in contact with seem to like the kilts. When I attend a funeral it will depend on who the funeral is for.

Would you wear the kilt to a meeting at your bank, where you wanted to borrow money, or to a first weekend away to your significant other's parents'?
At the bank, I'm not sure. All of the banking I've done in the past three years or so I think I've been kilted.
If I'm lucky enough to find a significant other, they'll have to understand that this is what I like to wear. If their parents can't handle that, there might be a problem, but I'll be wearing a kilt to meet the (hypothetical) parents.

[FinnKilt]

Like some other commentators on this thread, the big threshold for me was retirement from my full-time job, in summer 2012. It took me a month (yes, really) to clear my office after 37 years there, and the weather was consistently hot; and so I decided to switch to wearing a kilt. Since then, I have only worn legtubes under duress; and 'duress' almost always means social duress, such as 1) visiting elderly relatives who are likely to make an issue out of it; 2) extremely formal occasions where I am essentially one of the extras, 3) singing in a choir which has a regular uniform of some kind. When wearing a cassock I wear a slim lightweight kilt underneath.

Where I now live, in England, no one has seen me trousered except under conditions 2) or 3) above, so when I recently went to a funeral, I wore a kilt and i think it would have been considered a letdown if I hadn't. I do get teased; I do get asked if I'm Scottish: on a train in Germany recently I heard someone refer to me as 'der Schotte'; I do get asked (though very rarely) about underwear. [Hygiene! hygiene!] Non-social 'duress' includes out of doors in seriously cold weather (wind chill well below -20 C/-5 F; check what my fellow-Finlander Kylahullu wrote on an earlier page in this thread), sailing, and jobs that require crawling or climbing.

I haven't been to Scotland since going kilted, but know to expect a somewhat hostile or dubious reaction, especially since I am not Scottish (I'm a Finlander from Yorkshire). In Nova Scotia, at the supermarket checkout I was asked if I'd been to an 'event', which suggests a similar pattern as in Scotland: kilts for certain specific events only. But I wear kilts because I find them comfortable, and have no intention of going back into tubes again.