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

[Micric]

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.

I think this answer from Steve is very pertinent. Thank you for it!

I think also, a part of the answer to the OP, is that we have been 'trained' that if we wear a kilt, it should be worn Well, and have been given a sort of check -list...for example, kilt a certain length, hose a certain distance below the knee...flashes if worn so placed, shoes highly polished,... etc etc.
This then, automatically means that if we are wearing the kilt in the prescribed manner, we will indeed be doing so in the Scottish manner and therefore looking Very Scottish when we do so.
To me, it appears unavoidable to not Appear Scottish and wear the kilt in a manner that is traditional.
How can we escape this hiatus, of not wanting to appear like we are pretending to be Scottish, and still wear the kilt in respectful (and respectable) manner?

[ctbuchanan]

My visual contribution. Taken at Grand Central Station NYC prior to the Tartan Day Parade. Technically he is not wearing a kilt but a pleated skirt.