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

[NPG]

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!

Cape Breton! Now you're making me miss my grandpa (and first hockey coach).

[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.

[CMcG]

"Is it possible to wear a kilt and not look like you're from Scotland?" The simple answer is yes!

To give a more specific answer, we need to look at communication. Basically, when someone does something that can transmit meaning, the effectiveness of the communication depends partly on the way it is received. There are, of course, things that can be done to increase the effectiveness of the communication, like reducing interference and introducing redundancy that re-clarifies the meaning.

So when someone wears a specific type of kilt in a particular way, this creates a sign that will be interpreted by someone else according to his/her knowledge of kilts, as well as the context. Let me give some examples.

We here at Xmarks all know that the kilt is Scotland's national dress, but not everyone knows this. There have been plenty of posts over the years from kilted Xmarkers (usually outside Scotland) being asked if they are Irish...

There are plenty of people, in fact, who may be completely ignorant about kilts. Just the other day, for example, I passed by a convenience store on my way home from an event where I was kilted. The clerk appeared to be a newcomer to Canada, and he was genuinely curious about what I was wearing. He told me he had never seen such a thing before; this fellow didn't even know what a kilt was, let alone that it comes from Scotland!

When a kilt is part of a uniform, it doesn't immediately mark the wearer as being from Scotland either, assuming the onlookers realize it is a uniform. Scottish and Irish regiments, as well as civilian pipers and Highland athletes, have spread kilt wearing throughout the Commonwealth and beyond.

If someone does know a thing or two about kilts, then they might be able to interpret the specifics of a kilt and outfit more clearly. I don't believe a utility kilt, or even a tartan kilt worn in punk style, would give the impression to most people that the wearer is from Scotland. Solid colour Irish kilts, or even tartan kilts with Irish, Welsh, or Canadian accessories don't suggest the wearer is from Scotland either, or at least not in the sense of being a current resident.

When a person wears traditional Highland civilian dress (THCD), including a clan tartan kilt, and the people around them actually know what that is, then it could suggest that the person is from Scotland. However, understanding Highland dress that way leads to another question: what does it mean to be "from" Scotland? There are complex issues here that include citizenship, nationality, diaspora, ethnicity, heritage, culture, affiliation, etc.

Have you heard the adage about the kilt being a garment worn by tourists in Scotland and Scots abroad? I wonder if my Scottish born-and-raised buddy, whose ancestors are from China, is thought to be from Scotland by people who see him wearing the kilt to ceilidhs in Glasgow?

Now for some pictures of people wearing kilts and not looking like they are from Scotland.

[walkerk]

Well, there's always this guy...

[OC Richard]

Thing is, if I wanted to impersonate a Scottish person it wouldn't be Highland Dress I'd be wearing.

This, perhaps

[Freebooter]

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.

I feel the same as CTBuchanan and wear my kilt for one thing to honor my ancestors. My great grandmother was a Stenhouse, a Sept of Clan Bruce. My kilt is Bruce "Ancient" wool tartan from USA Kilts. And also like CTBuchanan I am the same way as he said also, casual as hell as you can tell in my pic. But I have worn it with a sport coat one time.

[O'Callaghan]

At the risk of putting the cat amongst the pigeons, I have to raise the Irish question.

And no, let me first say I don't mean why do tartan kilt wearers get asked if they are Irish? That one is easily answered, at least in regard to the US. Most pipe bands in the US represent police or fire departments, who in turn used to be (and often still are) staffed mainly by Irish Americans, and pipe bands are most Americans experience of people wearing kilts.

What I mean is that some of us wear kilts to represent the Emerald Isle, which was not one of the options in the original question.

The Gaels came to Scotland from Ireland (although there have been some here who even dispute that) and developped the kilt over a period of time, in Scotland, from the Irish brat (cloak, rhymes with bratwurst). Then, in the celtic revival of the 19th century, the Irish kilt appeared, usually solid green or solid saffron to distinguish it as Irish and not Scottish (there are explicable reasons for both of those colours, but how much time do you have?). This makes limited sense, as there were both tartan brats (otherwise why would Scottish kilts be tartan?) and also solid coloured Scottish kilts, but it does answer the question of how to stop the man in the street (or the man on the Clapham omnibus) from thinking it was Scottish. The Irish tartan kilt is a more recent development, and doubtless suffers from the problem that most people take it for Scottish, but that horse is out of the stable and has bolted.

[Freebooter]

Hello all,
I get the feeling that some in Scotland see people elsewhere wearing kilts as trying to be or look Scottish and some in Scotland look at it tongue in cheek or worse. Me personally, I own and/or wear a kilt on occasion because first of all I was raised and taught to be very proud of and to honor my Scottish ancestors. But also, I just think kilts are just cool. I don't even like the high "hose", etc, because here in south Alabama where it is around 100* Fahrenheit with heat index much of the time like 109 or something, I wear as little as possible, flip flops, light shirts, shorts, etc and with a kilt the same; strictly casual.

DE
Alabama, USA

[Downunder Kilt]

Freebooter, where in the hell does this statement come from? "I would be ashamed that people in other countries are more proud of their Scottish history and heritage than some people in Scotland. Please point to any statement in this thread where one could draw such a fantasy conclusion.