To kilt in modern north american society

[Taskr]

...compared to me on Friday; a lady and female passenger slowing up beside me in the parking lot and her saying, "I like your kilt. More men should wear them" and driving off before I could even say "thanks"

[Alan H]

Phil, the guy is a jerkface, and stupid, and you can't fix both ugly and stupid. If you beat his face, he'll just be uglier and no smarter.

As for wearing the kilt around and about, I started out being rather paranoid. After about the 5th or 6th time I just got on with it. Now I don't think about it. It's a non-issue, and I NEVER see anybody else around here wearing a kilt. Ever. For a while 2-3 other guys on campus (Stanford) would wear a kilt. Now? Never.

As for public response? Today I went to the bank on the way to work. On the corner, at the cafe, were three women gabbing over coffee. One of them was a model-beautiful woman, probably from ...Morocco? Her French was perfect, and she was absolutely stunning with dark hair and dark eyes. She looked up from her coffee and I got this incredible smile.

Now, tell me that I need to be all worried about what the dork at the corner liquor store thinks about my kilt.

[McMurdo]

I have been thinking about this a while. Canada is a multicultural society, we are proud of this or at least we are supposed to be. I find it funny that we as kilted men in the Commonwealth should have to defend ourselves. There are currently 16 Scottish infantry regiments in the Canadian Army, and one of artillery. The regiments of infantry are all kilted and carry on many other Scottish traditions. The Greater Toronto Area including Oakville, have so many Scottish influences from street names to St. Andrews Societies, pubs Scottish Country Dancing and so much more. Quite simply this country was built by Scot ex pats.

Yet we feel we need defend our right to wear a cultural garment in a society that prides itself, at least publicly, in multiculturalism. I for one am proud of my family and our history and thus I wear my kilt as an outward symbol of that. Therefore when I wear the kilt I try my best to do so properly and to look like I know what I am doing when kilted. I do not mix formalities for example I do not wear a sealskin sporran when wearing a casual outfit. For me anyway I wear my kilt and hold my head high, I am a grown man and should be able to dress myself in clothes of my choice.

[Roderick Powell]

I too have found that our community is some what receptive to heritage clothing. However here at the Univ. of Miss. the foreign students wear modern American clothes to socially fit in. When I wear my kilt out and about, there is a revival of customary clothes for a while and then things return to jeans and t-shirts quickly. I don't feel peer pressure or disapproval to my being kilted (except that my wife still doesn't like it). But I believe a trend could be established if more men wore kilts often.

Tarheel. I feel the answer is to avoid peer pressure and ignore the low life. I wear the kilt correctly with an Argyll Day jacket which is warm and has lots of pockets. If one dresses to a fashion others do not understand my maxim is that if I am confident folks will leave me alone. There is a difference between wearing fancy dress and wearing practical comfortable clothes. Kilties ignore current traditional clothes and wear clothes which were worn a hundred years ago.
I have found that by disciplining myself to only wear the Kilt for leisure wear I can project myself forward into a routine of dress. If I try to wear the Kilt as work wear, In my case ,boats and commercial fishing I get into a bog with my own risk assessment. I feel this is where the problem lies. If I wear the Kilt the fishermen Know I am not intending to work.
If they do not know the way I wear the Kilt for leisure, they cannot challenge my motives for wearing the kilt.
We are getting into the historical problems the foundary worker had wearing the Great Kilt in an Iron Foundary in
Scotland. Hope this helps you project yourself forward in your chosen direction. Roderick

[Finistere]

It is rather funny that my town that I live in was very much founded and inhabited by manly european immigrants and there is a large historic contingency of Scottish heritage here. Yet I am left to feel like there is something wrong with me if I don a kilt and walk down the street. Perhaps my wife is a social prude and gives me nothing but grief saying that I am trying to make a spectacle of myself for wearing clothing that is part of my heritage. I find it ironic that she and other community members doesn't have anything to say when a Sikh wears a robe and tuban, or Muslims walk around in a Najib. But a Scot wearing a kilt is just someone trying to draw attention to themselves and must be commented on.

I am curious if this is common around the X-Mark community, or if I just have the pleasure of being the ground breaker in my town.

Did you mean mainly Europeans or was manly a pun!!! here in France I get quite a few complements on my Kilt and mostly from women which is very nice. Kit

[Roderick Powell]

Your wife might simply be noticing that other women are noticing

Kilting has become almost the habit of throwing on a pair of pants. Maybe moreso now that I find myself having to make myself wear a pair of pants. Finally saw another kilt (utility) in my little city other than at a Gala. Maybe with them being seen "on a regular day" more often, others will take theirs off the hangers too. I'm with you; since its worn as it is intended to be (not a made-up costume or parody piece) there is absolutely nothing wrong with wearing Scots garb along with those that wear their tradtional and religious garb every day. In fact, more of us should be joining them rather than the throngs that complain about it.

I do get the spousal approval angle though. Mine has finally admitted its not that she minds the kilt being worn more often, its just that she sometimes perfers the backside of my jeans to the swish of a kilt. I couldn't argue on that one.

Taskr. I am moving on your wavelength. I am in your situation of making myself wear trousers but naturally wearing the Kilt. My mother ,when she was alive had her own views on male fashion. If she had discussed them with other people her opinions may have changed.. my mother did not mind me wearing the Kilt as I wore it to Kilted Functions.
I used to go to these functions with my neighbour's boy . So that was O K .

I moved back home to care for my mother.

I am now going a bit off track. Perhaps outside the remit of the Forum, but the implication is Female Logic.
My mother did not mind me wearing a male skirt in doors. She did not consider it was acceptable for me to go out in a Male Skirt as she was concerned as to what the neighbours would think of our family.

For her sins my mother was chastised by her boss on a Monday morning before the war for going out on a Sunday afternoon wearing cycling shorts.

During the war many ladies wore trousers as part of their war effort uniform.

In 1939 many men volunteered to fight for their county in The Highland Regiments. They gave up wearing trousers and were forced to wear the Kilt in the traditional manner under military regulations.

In 1940 the Kilt was banned for active duty in the British Army in 1940 . Many kilties burnt their Kilts as a protest.

There has been a distinct swap in male and female fashion trends since the 1930's

I am naturally giving up wearing male skirts as the logic behind the right to wear a male skirt in public is too complicated.

It is far more simple to wrap my kilt around me and accept the challenges of the day.

I trust the forum will accept my post as I hope this does help to explain the logic to the Right of the male to wear the Kilt without being challenged by S.W.M.B.O. ........ all the best... Roderick

[Alan H]

Regarding wifely objections to wearing a kilt......

Since when does you wife tell you what to wear? Do you tell HER what to wear? I rather doubt it.

Mrs. Alan viewed the entire kilt thing with distaste for the first few months. It didn't help matters that the very first time I emerged from my study with a kilt on, I also had on a pouffy Ren Faire shirt. However, I changed that pretty quickly. I still got "looks" and "comments".

After a couple of months of that, after a "comment" I turned around, looked her squarely in the eyes and told her, to her face that she had no right to tell me what to wear. It wasn't her decision. I didn't tell her what to wear, if other people didn't like it, it didn't reflect badly on her, it was about ME. And to be honest, I told her in so many words that if she didn't like it she could damned well shut the hell up about it and keep her snide comments and sideways looks to herself.

She didn't like that....for about an hour. It was only a couple of months later, at the San Francisco Symphony, that another concert-goer made a comment about me being a poser, and Mrs. Alan (aka the Luminous Joan) ripped the guy a new orifice. I didn't have to say a word.

I think she appreciated me telling her exactly what I thought in no uncertain terms. For a long time I put an effort into being considerate, as in if an event was sort of "Her" event, then I would either ask, or just put on pants, to accommodate her comfort level. However, the rest of the time, if I wanted to wear a kilt, I wore a kilt. Now, the whole thing is a non-issue.

It's my opinion that if your wife doesn't want you to wear a kilt, and you really want to wear a kilt but you waffle and cry and worry and fuss about it and then DON'T wear a kilt because "she won't let you"...well, then you probably shouldn't wear one.

So my question is....Is it about the "Kilt"? Or is it about power and control within your relationship? Sure, a kilt is just a garment. Big whoop whether you wear one or not. But the "control" issue is NOT "big whoop". THAT really matters. Only you know whether that's an issue, or not.

[thecompaqguy]

Taskr. I am moving on your wavelength. I am in your situation of making myself wear trousers but naturally wearing the Kilt. My mother ,when she was alive had her own views on male fashion. If she had discussed them with other people her opinions may have changed.. my mother did not mind me wearing the Kilt as I wore it to Kilted Functions.
I used to go to these functions with my neighbour's boy . So that was O K .

I moved back home to care for my mother.

I am now going a bit off track. Perhaps outside the remit of the Forum, but the implication is Female Logic.
My mother did not mind me wearing a male skirt in doors. She did not consider it was acceptable for me to go out in a Male Skirt as she was concerned as to what the neighbours would think of our family.

For her sins my mother was chastised by her boss on a Monday morning before the war for going out on a Sunday afternoon wearing cycling shorts.

During the war many ladies wore trousers as part of their war effort uniform.

In 1939 many men volunteered to fight for their county in The Highland Regiments. They gave up wearing trousers and were forced to wear the Kilt in the traditional manner under military regulations.

In 1940 the Kilt was banned for active duty in the British Army in 1940 . Many kilties burnt their Kilts as a protest.

There has been a distinct swap in male and female fashion trends since the 1930's

I am naturally giving up wearing male skirts as the logic behind the right to wear a male skirt in public is too complicated.

It is far more simple to wrap my kilt around me and accept the challenges of the day.

I trust the forum will accept my post as I hope this does help to explain the logic to the Right of the male to wear the Kilt without being challenged by S.W.M.B.O. ........ all the best... Roderick

I've had this same issue with my wife - She knows about my extensive kilt collection - but would rather that they stay like that- just a collection and I shouldn't wear them ever I asked her the logic behind that statement and discovered it's the age old issue of females wanting to keep the 'skirt' for themselves, yet laying claim to trousers. My issue is as a man of colour, I was told that 'black people do not wear kilts' and 'it's not normal'... but said if I wore traditional African clothes that was okay as they incorporated trousers, and trousers are for men, 'but a kilt is a skirt, and skirts are for women only' I then showed her these pictures from a simple Google search



but still the protest continued. I just said 'you only live once, you have to just accept that I'll dress how I feel like', and there's plenty of women that dig the kilt, regardless of the wearer's colour I said, as I'm British, I'll wear a British national dress rather than African garb which for me would be a cliche.

Some people will never be convinced, but you just have to be confident and ignore any 'haters'... As one user's signature puts it, "A life lived in fear, is a life half lived."

[cizinec]

Worn properly, a kilt looks smart. Quite honestly, it's the best looking garment I own and I wear it to church quite often, as does my son. We go to a Ukrainian Orthodox church most Sundays and an Arab one on occasion. After the first two or three times wearing it, people stopped asking questions and it stopped being an oddity.

I have to confess that I am a terrible dresser. I hate fussing with my civilian clothes, but I hate that I look sloppy. When I wear a kilt, for whatever reason, I'm more conscientious about how I look. That makes my wife happy and it makes me feel more confident.

I don't care what color or race or nationality you are, if you wear a kilt properly you will look smart. If that makes somebody else feel uncomfortable then they deserve to be uncomfortable.

[thecompaqguy]

Worn properly, a kilt looks smart. Quite honestly, it's the best looking garment I own and I wear it to church quite often, as does my son. We go to a Ukrainian Orthodox church most Sundays and an Arab one on occasion. After the first two or three times wearing it, people stopped asking questions and it stopped being an oddity.

I have to confess that I am a terrible dresser. I hate fussing with my civilian clothes, but I hate that I look sloppy. When I wear a kilt, for whatever reason, I'm more conscientious about how I look. That makes my wife happy and it makes me feel more confident.

I don't care what color or race or nationality you are, if you wear a kilt properly you will look smart. If that makes somebody else feel uncomfortable then they deserve to be uncomfortable.

Thanks for the encouragement! I'm wearing my kilt to church this Sunday too! It's a Grey Thompson with a smart grey jacket and waistcoat. I was thinking of my navy kilt suit but I'll get them accustomed to the kilt first