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

[Thekiltedmohawk]

My reasons for donning a kilt on regular basis:

1. They are comfortable

2. I look great in them especially with the vest and tie. My clients love them.

3. My lovely girlfriend appreciate and love it when I wear a kilt in her presence.

4. I don't feel hot with my kilt compared with the trousers/shorts especially the jeans one.

I have been asked by the strangers about what tartan is it? Is it comfortable? Is it too cold to wear a kilt in the snowy Colorado?

Ironically, I've been asked if I was from Scotland visiting America by an immigrated Scot himself whose moved to America a long time ago at a restaurant! He was surprised to see someone else donned a kilt here in the US. I explained to him that some of the Americans do wear a kilt often or on the regular basis to his surprise.

It's no question the tartan kilt=Scotland connection. Who are we to deny it? In my opinion it's open to us to interpret to the reasons we define our connections to Scotland.

A question for Jock. Isn't the Highland Games were hosted in Scotland and the other countries for the purpose for the way to celebrate the Scottish and the Celtics culture esp the Scottish Highlands? If that's the case then it should be perfectly appropriate for the clan marshal like CtBuchanan to don their clan tartan kilt, hose, balmorals, and etc to recognize their heritage, their ancestors connections, and to show their love for the Scottish culture at the Highland Games? It's also to preserve the Scottish Highland culture as the globalization are consuming and erasing many cultures on a rapid basis nowadays.

Frankly, if a clan marshal like ctbuchanan shows up in the Highland Games in the pair of jeans, a shirt, a baseball cap, and a white sneakers to represent the Buchanan clan.. It'd look embarrassingly ridiculous on himself, on his clan, and his Buchanan ancestors will roll over in the graves, no?

[Alan H]

One cannot argue that "tartan kilt = Scotland". Or can you? How many times have we seen on this board a post where someone in a kilt is asked by the unknowing man in the street, "Are you Irish?" or, "Are you from Australia?" and so on?

Is it possible to wear a [tartan] kilt and not look like you're from Scotland? Yes. Even if you are wearing a kilt in Scotland. Or is the "Tartan Army" look now the defacto stereotype?

Is it possible to wear BDUs* and not look like you're in the US Armed Forces? Yes, but the unknowing man in the street the world over thinks "BDUs = Military".

Is it possible to wear a scrubs and not look like you're in the medical profession? Yes, but the unknowing man in the street the world over thinks "scrubs = Doctor or Nurse".

You'll never be able to reconcile the opinion of the unknowing man in the street. It's a variable too large.


* Apologies to Father Bill. BDU = Battle Dress Uniform.

I think that this is particularly well-pointed out.

"The unknowing man in the street"... will make assumptions, quite naturally. However, am I (or you, or anybody else) "responsible" for their perceptions? I don't think so.


Thanks for all the replies, too.

[Alan H]

Actually my lovely long post up there, as delightful as it may be, does not address the question.

EDIT: It was so long and so not-on-topic and it was so "I've been over all this before" that I just deleted most of it.

Here, I'll write something that DOES address the question.

I don't presume to tell MacKenzie why he wears his kilt, until he tells me his reasons.
I don't presume to know why Panache wears his kilt, unless he tells me, of course....(which he has; He's convinced that he's devilishly handsome when wearing them .)
I don't think that I know why Steve, or grizzbass or sailortats or CmCG or ratspike or the kiltedmohawk or Father Bill or anybody else on the forum wear their kilts, unless they tell me.
.....and I don't know why Jock Scot wears his kilt(s) until he tells me why he wears them.

I certainly don't think that I know these gentlemens minds better than they know them, themselves. If someone on the forum tells me/us why he wears a kilt I think we're kind of obligated to believe the person unless we know them offline quite well and know that they're either A.) a pathological liar or B.) seriously deluded.

I might be seriously deluded, eh? But I know that I'm neither Canadian nor Scottish.

[Thekiltedmohawk]

I found a pic of someone wears a kilt, and not look like he's from Scotland either.

I present this picture of a Japanese punk that donned a kilt in Tokyo.

Would fine people in Tokyo still think of him as a Scot since he wears one?

[Father Bill]

Entirely possible to wear a kilt and look like you're from Nova Scotia (New Scotland for non-Latin lovers) and particularly Cape Breton. You'd look like that sub-group of Canadians!

[S Mitchell]

I agree; I don't think it's possible to separate the kilt from Scotland in people's eyes. When I wear my kilt, I'm frequently asked where I'm from or about my ancestry.

Often, I've wished there were an established, American tradition of tartan kilt wear, some style which, without looking like a costume and while still looking nice, immediately told observers, "Oh, that kilt's being worn in the American fashion" - this, without detracting from or supplanting Highland tradition.

I've wished for it mostly because I like wearing my kilt for a number of Alan's reasons but I don't want the folks whose garment I'm admittedly appropriating (with as much respect as I can) to feel I'm playing at being a Scot, when really I'm not.

[ratspike]

LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS! I know, not really a kilt but meh. I think that dude looks fantastic and I suspect he does too. Also, you know that someone, somewhere - probably an American tourist - would ask him if he's Scottish.

[OC Richard]

On first blush the question

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

stuck me as 1) ridiculous and 2) possibly coming from a set of assumptions that I don't agree with.

The ridiculous side of it was pointed out above, regarding camouflage clothing and scrubs. Start flipping the question various ways at the absurdity is clear:

Is it possible to wear_____ and not look like you're from _____?

(Insert kimono/Japan, cowboy hat/America, bush hat/Australia, aloha shirt/Hawai'i, fur hat/Russia, etc.)

Reading between the lines, the question seems to come from the "trying to pretend to be something you're not" charge so often levelled at kiltwearers on these boards (but nowhere else, as best I can recall, in 40 years of kiltwearing).

I know people of Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, German, Filipino, Thai, African, Swedish, English, Irish, and I can't recall what else who wear kilts on a regular basis, and NONE of them, not a one, has the slightest notion of pretending to be anything other than what they are. The idea that they are is not only incorrect but also condescending.

A person wearing a kilt strikes me as... a person wearing a kilt. Nothing more.

[Thekiltedmohawk]

OCR, well said! Agreed with you %100

[Thekiltedmohawk]

LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS! I know, not really a kilt but meh. I think that dude looks fantastic and I suspect he does too. Also, you know that someone, somewhere - probably an American tourist - would ask him if he's Scottish.

Color me surprised if it doesn't happen yet!