Kilts and costumes

[Jock Scot]

I respect where you're coming from, but I'd argue that a uniform is something you wear to play a role "for real." A costume is something you wear to play a role "for pretend." For example, I play on a vintage base ball team; we recreate baseball as it was played in the 1860s. We wear vintage-style shield-front shirts, flat-topped caps, knickers, and stockings. When I wear that outfit to play a game, it's a uniform. When I wear it to answer the door on Halloween night, it's a costume. It's all about what you intend when you wear a thing.

Should, say, police officers ever wear their distinctive outfits as costumes rather than uniforms? I'd think not. It would confuse observers and undermine the authority of the clothes when worn as a uniform. For kilts, this consideration would only apply to specific individuals who are trying to persuade specific others of their seriousness in wearing the kilt, whether as a uniform or everyday wear. In that case, for those people, wearing a kilt as a costume would undermine their purpose in wearing a kilt at other times. But that shouldn't prevent others from having fun and wearing their kilts as costumes if they please.

I mean, nobody would say, "You shouldn't wear pants as part of your Halloween costume if you normally wear pants," right? Just because you wear a cowboy hat around town the rest of the year doesn't mean you can't dress up as a cowboy for Halloween.

To suggest that the kilt is a costume(on occasions eg Halloween)just shows ignorance of Highland attire.You will do what you will do with your kilt and that is your right.Please bare our sensitivities in mind and might I strongly recommend that you do not visit Scotland and tell us the kilt is a costume!