Tell newbie about kilt pins

[OC Richard]

There are a lot of pipers and drummers that love the music, but think the 'whole kilt-thing' is a real pain in the posterior and would much rather have the focus be on the music.

For sure I've always heard Pipe Band people complain about having to wear Highland Dress and expressing the desire to be allowed to compete in ordinary casual clothes.

What's interesting is that despite this many experienced Pipe Band people take pride in their uniforms and are what might be termed "kilt snobs" due to only full-yardage handsewn traditional kilts being considered "real kilts".

This struck me quite a few years ago when, at a Highland Games, all of us saw Utilikilts for the first time. Utilikilts were quite new, only the original Seattle firm making them, and they showed up at a Games with a booth.

The booth was very popular with crowds gathering around, trying on the garments, and buying them in huge numbers.

However the reaction of all my band-mates was extremely negative. They made derogatory comments about the Utilikilts all weekend calling them "wrinkly skirts" etc.

After all, outside of orchestras, no one else has to wear funny-looking outfits to play their music.

Actually around the world it's quite common for musicians to be expected to wear costumes of one sort or another. Rock bands and Country Western bands are only two of many current examples. (How rockers look might not be a "funny looking outfit" but you can tell a rocker walking down the street due to their hair and clothes.)

It's especially so with "folk" or "traditional" music, for example Bulgarian, Mexican, Bolivian, and Spanish folk musicians have specific costumes they generally perform in.

In my pipe band, members pay for their shoes, kilt hose, kilt pin (if desired), waist belt/buckle, shirts (long and short sleeve), Argyll jacket, Inverness cape (waterproof, not wool), and Glengarry. Many times, the band will order some of these items (mainly the kilt hose) in bulk and offer them to the band at cost, or slightly above, to reduce costs and make sure everyone gets the same look/color. Everything else (the kilt, cap badge, waistcoat, flashes and tie), the pipe chanter, reed & reed cap for the pipes and drums/carriers for the drummers, are provided by the band.

I've been in a few different bands here in Southern California, the first (1977) wearing Full Dress and issuing everything: feather bonnet, doublet, kilt, plaid, crossbelt, waistbelt, brooch, sporran, hose-tops, flashes, and spats.

By the 1980s bands had generally done away with Full Dress and of course nowadays bands nearly all compete in waistcoats, jackets being a thing of the past.

Bands around here, over the last twenty years, have issued cap-badge, tie, kilt, sporran, hose, and flashes. The members buy their Glengarry, shirt, and Ghillies. Now with waistcoats bands here don't need to issue belts.