Ghillie brogues - why the dislike and resentment..?

[JPS]

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I thought I would add this to the mix...

A cropped still from a mid-'60s film showing a piper in action at a Games in Scotland.

The low level winding of the red laces, and side tied bow are worth noting. A style worth reviving, do you think..?

A style definitely worth reviving, and I submit that you and I should get to work immediately "being the change". I know red laces are available for ghillies through dance supply shops, though I've never seen matching tassels on offer. They can't possibly be too complicated, though, can they?

Yes, that certainly seems to be the way, and the question of 'Is it too matchy-matchy..? is often asked when showing an outfit.

Wanting to 'do things right' is, of course, commendable and should be encouraged, but it suggests that there is a big risk of doing things wrong also.

It has always been my impression that here in Scotland there is almost no awareness of doing it either way, right or wrong, but just simply doing it. Established convention and still-practised etiquette are the natural guides if ever in doubt for any kind of social situation, but the idea that wearing the kilt can be done 'wrong' in any informal setting (that is, when uniform or specified dress is required) would baffle most Scots.

Dress, in a lot of ways, is like language. For Scots, dressing in traditional Highland attire is a native skill, and so it doesn't require a great deal of intentionality or purposeful planning. Someone who has been brought up seeing the kilt worn from infancy just knows how it should be done, the same way someone who has heard English spoken all their life doesn't give much thought to sentence structure.

Americans, by and large, wear the kilt with an accent, as you have indirectly suggested. As a native Spanish speaker using English is extremely careful to use the exact right words in their proper form, which can cause conversation to sound stilted and awkward, an American donning the kilt later in life has "the rules" in mind, and while he can get everything technically correct, the ensemble might come off as off somehow. He has dressed in Highland attire with an accent.

As a college student taking French classes, my professor impressed upon us that more important than diction and conjugation was the music of the language. We should strive to get the rhythm and the intonation just so, according to Professor Carton, and phrasing and pronunciation would naturally follow. So we spent hours alternately humming and whispering back the conversations we heard. It's a brilliant approach to language acquisition, and there must be a corollary in traditional dress, if we could just find it.