Is it possible to wear a kilt and not look like you're from Scotland?

[Panache]

BTW, i want you all to know that I wear a kilt for the following reason.

I'm blisteringly handsome in one.

Pretty much why I do it...

Cheers

Jamie

[Liam]

BTW, i want you all to know that I wear a kilt for the following reason.

I'm blisteringly handsome in .....

My reason too. Btw, great post. Thanks!

[The Wizard of BC]

In my case I don't think there has ever been a problem. I am a kiltmaker and wear a kilt everyday. It is sort of expected by those who walk into my shop. They expect and deserve to see a guy wearing his product.

This does give me a different perspective from many of the comments I have read over the past few weeks. I guess I have been asked if I am everything - Irish, Celtic, in a pipe band or going to pipe practice and even once I was asked if I was Australian.

On a few occasions I have been asked if I am Scottish or from Scotland. My reply is always the same - "Scottish? No. Canadian eh." I am always met with a smile and a knowing nod. Everyone up here seems to take it as understood that a Canadian wearing a kilt, even a Tartan kilt, is not trying to pretend to be Scottish. They are being 100% Canadian. Just as someone wearing a button blanket or a Capote coat made from a Hudson's Bay Point Blanket is being 100% Canadian.

So I'm sorry Alan, I guess I don't fit in any of your categories except maybe no. 8. Yea, I like the attention wearing something different brings. On the street, in trousers, I'm just another old, gray haired white guy. Someone girls do not look in the eye and mothers shoo their young daughters away from.
In a kilt, walking down the street, and I say hi to everyone (Just like I would do in trousers) but when I am in a kilt everyone says hi back. Everyone!

In pants I am either invisible or I am a member of the most feared demographic in N. America. A middle aged, white Male.
So I guess in a way I would also fit in category 6, but not on purpose. I don't go looking for the attention, it just sort of goes along with a guy who is telling the entire world, "I like exactly who I am and don't have a problem." And folks seem to pick up on that subliminally.

And maybe it is because I am not in any of your blue or green categories.

[Sir Didymous]

I tend to fall into the 4, 5, and 7 categories here. Though, in all honesty, number 6 is nice on occasion. Additionally, if you count belonging to a steampunk group that does a neo-Victorian Highland regiment as a portrayal, 8 could apply. The fact is that it is usually when I'm wearing the more conservative and/or traditional attire that I am mistaken for being from Scotland. Typically, though, most just assume that there are some Highland roots somewhere.

It has been my overall experience with my more eccentric modes of dress that many just think it a fashion choice.

[ThistleDown]

Everyone up here seems to take it as understood that a Canadian wearing a kilt, even a Tartan kilt, is not trying to pretend to be Scottish. They are being 100% Canadian. Just as someone wearing a button blanket or a Capote coat made from a Hudson's Bay Point Blanket is being 100% Canadian.

I think your experience is much that of any kilt-wearer in Canada, Steve, and I think that the thread question is perhaps peculiarly US-driven. In the UK nobody would ask of a kilt-wearer "Are you Scottish?", even in Wales or Cornwall. (Scots might wear a kilt in Wales or Cornwall, but Highland Scots might not.) Neither would that question be asked in Canada ... except when the wearer is noticeably uncomfortable in his own clothing or is wearing clothing inappropriate to the occasion.

[Jock Scot]

I think the key factor here is wearing the kilt with all the other accoutrements of traditional Scottish wear.

I don't normally wear the kilt that way. I wear it like an American of Scottish descent. No one in Scotland, I trust, would look at me in a kilt with tshirt and ball cap and say I was trying to look Scottish. And I'm not. I wear my Clan tartan kilt as a symbol of my family and clan and I am definitely NOT trying to look Scottish (no offense intended). Oh, and I wear it because all of my Scottish Mother's sons do.

I did put on a Balmoral in this photo as I was serving in my capacity as Clan Marshall at the New Hampshire Highland Games.

With the greatest of respect that is exactly the problem! Many Scots DO think that you are trying to dress as a Scot, particularly at a Highland Games. You may think that you look very smart and you are in your way, you may think that you are being a Canadian/ American/Wherever doing your own thing but the tartan kilt, hose, flashes, bonnet, stick scuppers that idea in Scots eyes -------. Not only that, i go back to my point that the unknowing man in the street the world over thinks "tartan kilt = Scotland".

I don't think this divergence of viewpoint and consequential opinion will ever be reconciled.

[tpa]

Wearing a kilt daily, for comfort, outside Scotland as I do, I think the most common question I get from strangers after "What tartan is it?" is "Which part of Scotland do you come from?" So the assumption is definitely tartan kilt = Scottish, in England at least.

As Steve says it also generates a more pleasant communication experience. Whilst some people seem to deliberately avoid eye contact, which they may do whatever you are wearing, the majority at least respond to a "Hi".

[hector]

A very interesting thread!
I see myself in the brown group. I would love to be able to wear the kilt the same as I wear blue jeans. But you are right, kilted people are automatically seen to be a Scot (at least in continental Europe). In jeans nobody seems to think he or she is facing a cowboy! And I am afraid this will not change! A pity.

[OC Richard]

In my opinion as a Scot, Utilikilt suggests west coast North America, all the way down from Canada to San Diego, a fashion craze which spread outwards from its source in Seattle.

Yes indeedy.

Being here in Southern California, nearly all the kiltwearers I see are in actual Utilikilts, and they're usually from the Pacific Northwest. I get a distinct Starbucks-like feeling about them.

I'm of course in Alan's last category, the sort that is required to wear Highland Dress, in my case to get paid money, or when playing with a Pipe Band.

If I'm going to a Highland Games and not competing, I used to wear t-shirt, cargo shorts, and zorries like everyone else in the piping community here. Partly due to joining XMarks I started to appreciate Highland Dress more, and now if I'm attending a Games and not competing I'll wear kilts anyhow. Guess what? I get asked all day by my various piping friends "you playing today?" because the idea of putting on all that stuff for no reason is inconceivable to them.

[Liam]

With the greatest of respect that is exactly the problem! Many Scots DO think that you are trying to dress as a Scot, particularly at a Highland Games. You may think that you look very smart and you are in your way, you may think that you are being a Canadian/ American/Wherever doing your own thing but the tartan kilt, hose, flashes, bonnet, stick scuppers that idea in Scots eyes -------. Not only that, i go back to my point that the unknowing man in the street the world over thinks "tartan kilt = Scotland".

I don't think this divergence of viewpoint and consequential opinion will ever be reconciled.

And Jock, I don't try to hide that while I am proudly Canadian, I have Scottish ancestors so I wear a kilt to also proudly acknowledge the fact.😉