Kilt Do's and Don'ts

[Monkey@Arms]

I agree that, generally speaking, fashion is fleeting and passes with the fashionable. Hmmmm...of course, it became "fashionable" for non-military men to wear the PC to somewhat match (or at least compete on the same level with) their military counterparts. And the PC stuck and is now considered traditional. To support our argument, however, there's the 19C fashion of the great hairy sporran. Fortunately that one eventually passed. At least it did in Scotland; has it in North America?

Yes. As I said in an earlier post: common use and common beliefs over time. So we cannot say, until it has passed, whether a fashion will become tradition, or not, I suppose. Tradition does not lead to fashion, for sure, but I think you will agree that sometimes tradition becomes fashionable

I would argue that it is all fashion. As you point out the big hairy sporran used to be de rigeur, to wear a simpler one would probably have been considered a "don't" in its day. Indeed the kilt as we all know, came into vogue as a result of King George IV 's visit to Scotland, and was quite unfashionable before that time, and existed as a tradition only in the Highlands.

Sure we now have expectations about how a "traditional" kilt is "traditionally" worn, such as where a kilt pin goes if one wears one, and what style of jacket goes with what, but as you have given many examples, these customs have changed with the times.

Kilt wearing evolves, some changes take, others fall by the wayside, and unless you're wearing it as a uniform, or as a re-enactor, its a clothing, not costume.

Best regards,

Jake