Why the rise in kilt popularity?

[KellyCH]

Consider the steps into wearing the kilt. First you have to think about it, then you have to actually obtain a kilt, then you have to wear it outside and discover that nothing bad whatsoever will happen when you do. Next, you'll probably end up with a dozen or so kilts, wear them every day, and be immediately fingered in the neighbourhood as "the guy in the kilt".

Now ponder the gap between steps 1 (think about it) and 2 (obtain a kilt). If you're not sure how step 3 (wearing it outside) is going to go, how likely is it that you're going to plonk down US$500 or more on something that you may wear only once and then retreat in humiliation and derision in public? But, on the other hand, if you're only out a tenth of that to give it a shot, then it's a lot more likely you'll try it and discover, as almost all of us do, that wearing a kilt in public is largely a non-event and that most of the interactions with strangers are positive and sometimes delightful.

My first kilt was actually hand-sewn by me (and hardly authentic), but something I could afford which looked good enough to try out in public. So, I tried it out. Nothing happened. So then it was all Bear Kilts, Stillwater, Utilikilts, and the rest, including some more authentic interpretations, but in synthetics because my skin doesn't support wool.

Look, most people don't have any idea what will happen when they venture out in a kilt. We can say as much as we wish from experience, "nothing", but people have to try it for themselves to believe it. Fine--isn't it great that maybe 100 times as many people can discover that for fifty bucks off the rack than for ten times that for a custom order that takes a month or more to arrive?

[staticsan]

Who is going to pay hundreds for a garment they may never wear?
Who is going to risk spoiling a garment they have paid hundreds for by wearing it too often?
The more you pay, the longer the kilt will spend on its hanger.
The less you pay, the more time it will spend round your waist.
(as far as non-forum men are concerned, anyway)

That is almost the wrong way to look at it; we just have to convince the public this is the case. Being in a cash-crunch myself at the moment, and therefore comparing the pricepoints of several very different things I want to buy but have to save up for has given me an unusual insight into kilt prices.

When I'm financial again, I will be happy to plonk $800 down on a laptop - and I will probably get 5 years use out of it, maybe more. Spend that much on a kilt and I will easily get 20 years use out of (depending on my waistline). I've already spent a similar amount on an off-the-rack suit I hardly wear - why am I baulking for a kilt that I will wear as often as I can? It doesn't make sense!

There was a recent thread about what if WalMart sold kilts which got me really really thinking about kilt prices... How much would I spend on a pair of dress trousers? or a pair of decent jeans (and all of my current pairs are now falling apart)? ...but that's not the whole picture, either. I would buy a pair of dress trousers because "I need another pair as the current one is basically worn out". I am not looking at kilt purchases like that! Kilts have so much more character than trousers - I pick a pair of trousers out the cupboard based on colour and fit. A kilt choice is a much more emotional decision - and currently I only have three to choose from!

For the first time in my life, I now have a real glimpse into why women typically have more clothes than men (and why Hamish has 80+ kilts... ). I also have the beginnings of truly caring for what I look like clothed. Thanks to The Kilt.

For too long, we in the west have become innured to cheap, disposable clothing. This is why Joe Public will baulk at the price of a made-to-measure kilt. The inexpensive kilts will help bridge that, but like a professional camera, the more expensive ones are made to survive a tougher life than the entry-level ones. You can drop a Nikon D1x D-SLR onto concrete and it will very likely still function perfectly. It's designed to be this robust. A D40 is not. That is the main reason the D1x is ten times the price. IMO, expensive kilts are expensive for much the same reason.

Wade.

[Carolina Kiltman]

That is almost the wrong way to look at it; . . .
When I'm financial again, I will be happy to plonk $800 down on a laptop - and I will probably get 5 years use out of it, maybe more. Spend that much on a kilt and I will easily get 20 years use out of (depending on my waistline). I've already spent a similar amount on an off-the-rack suit I hardly wear - why am I baulking for a kilt that I will wear as often as I can? It doesn't make sense!
Wade.

A waist is a terrible thing to mind

I have, of course, taken a bit of this out of context, as my situation was a bit different.

In 1949, I got my first kilt, when the family all descended upon Tobermory to celebrate my Maternal Grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary. I did not wear it much after that one occasion.

So a few years back, when I became involved with the Cape Fear Valley Scottish Clans, I checked all the websites, found that most of the "off the peg" kilts were about 2" (5 cm) too short. Also none of the "family" tartans were available this way either. (I still had my original, but it had shrunk mightily around the waist in the closet). Also until rather recently, I have had to buy either bespoke or made to measure dress clothing.

I then started asking around. I heard far too many horror stories about surprise import duties. Then our prez mentioned that the Cape Fear Pipes and Drums were getting new kilts from a US manufacturer, I waited until they arrived, liked what I saw and ordered one from the same supplier. I am very satisfied with it, by the way.

All of which is to say the cost of the kilt and jacket was well within the range I had been paying for a suit with two pr of trousers and a vest.

[GDub]

I blame Hamish!

Being a newcomer to kilts and the XMTS, in all honesty, I can't blame Hamish (not yet anyway). I blame RiverKilt!

Freedom!!

[crboltz]

I don't know about why I started, but I know why I keep it up. Here in Fresno it suddenly got about 15 degrees colder this week (or thats what it feels like). My students have seen me either in a kilt or in baggy cargo shorts. When I wore jeans regularly, I liked them fairly tight (not obscene, but not "Baggy teenager" either). Today I had to get to work very early to do some painting (something I won't do in a kilt), and then I headed to class. 2 students (both female) commented that they had never seen me in pants... and frankly preferred the kilts. (They really don't like the cargo shorts). So I guess my students prefer me in a kilt.

Guess I'm stuck wearing them

Chris

[McMurdo]

I've been thinking about this one for a bit now, good topic by the way. I'm not sure I can touch on the rise in popularity, I can really only speak for myself. I started wearing the kilt as an expression of my heritage, it had for me anyway absolutely nothing to do with comfort or rebellion. The first time I wore one in my adult years was at my twin brothers wedding, at the time I commented that I should have done this a long time ago.

After that I was given my Dad's old kilt and wore it to a heritage night at work, I'm certain my outfit back then would have been added to the kilt don't thread, be that as it may, I learned what was correct. At the same time I had encouragement at work to wear it again and so started wearing my kilt 2 or 3 times a week, I bought more kilts and now I have enough that I can and do wear one every day.

I think in a larger sense the internet and in particular this website has done much for the rise in the popularity of the kilt worldwide, it showed me anyway that I was not alone in my desire to wear the kilt, and to embrace that part of my heritage.

As for cheap kilts helping I'm not completely sold on that idea, my reasons are that while there is no doubt they would be comfortable, they just do not look as good and do not last as long and therefore they may indeed be a hindrance. As I see it a traditional hand sewn kilt that looks great, that can be passed down to the next generation, a kilt that can look good with a t-shirt or with a doublet is the most economical way to go.

[macwilkin]

I've been thinking about this one for a bit now, good topic by the way. I'm not sure I can touch on the rise in popularity, I can really only speak for myself. I started wearing the kilt as an expression of my heritage, it had for me anyway absolutely nothing to do with comfort or rebellion. The first time I wore one in my adult years was at my twin brothers wedding, at the time I commented that I should have done this a long time ago.

After that I was given my Dad's old kilt and wore it to a heritage night at work, I'm certain my outfit back then would have been added to the kilt don't thread, be that as it may, I learned what was correct. At the same time I had encouragement at work to wear it again and so started wearing my kilt 2 or 3 times a week, I bought more kilts and now I have enough that I can and do wear one every day.

I think in a larger sense the internet and in particular this website has done much for the rise in the popularity of the kilt worldwide, it showed me anyway that I was not alone in my desire to wear the kilt, and to embrace that part of my heritage.

As for cheap kilts helping I'm not completely sold on that idea, my reasons are that while there is no doubt they would be comfortable, they just do not look as good and do not last as long and therefore they may indeed be a hindrance. As I see it a traditional hand sewn kilt that looks great, that can be passed down to the next generation, a kilt that can look good with a t-shirt or with a doublet is the most economical way to go.

Well said, Glen.

I think you speak for many of us in this post.

Todd

[Bugbear]

My heritage is all mixed up and coming from several places in Europe and probably beyond. There are Scottish roots in my family, but they are well blended with German, Duch, English, Irish, and on and on to who knows where. So, I express my heritage by trying to blend a little of several of those in with the Scottish of the tartan kilt without looking... too idiotic.

I call it the American look.

[DWFII]

I think in a larger sense the internet and in particular this website has done much for the rise in the popularity of the kilt worldwide, it showed me anyway that I was not alone in my desire to wear the kilt, and to embrace that part of my heritage.

As for cheap kilts helping I'm not completely sold on that idea, my reasons are that while there is no doubt they would be comfortable, they just do not look as good and do not last as long and therefore they may indeed be a hindrance. As I see it a traditional hand sewn kilt that looks great, that can be passed down to the next generation, a kilt that can look good with a t-shirt or with a doublet is the most economical way to go.

The OP mentioned a question I raised in another thread as the basis for this one...the question was "why are kilts so popular in the US?

And to some extent that's a little different question that "why the rise in popularity."

I agree with Glen...I also am not convinced the availability of cheaper kilts is the answer. I'm 62 years old and have never worn a kilt until this year. I've made my living as a shoemaker, which means that I'm practicing (and getting paid like) a 19th century Trade on the verge off the 21st century. And I've been doing that, full time, most of my adult life, In other words, I'm not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination.

Yet, I would never have considered a cheap kilt nor even a "contemporary" kilt. I looked for a bargain, no mistake, when I bought my first kilt but it was a Edinburgh made tank, nevertheless.

I think the Internet only serves to reinforce that sense of "community" I mentioned in a previous post. The internet does that for all kinds of perspectives and is particularly valuable where that community is so thin on the ground that meeting a fellow traveler on a face-to-face, daily basis is almost happenchance. But it doesn't really make folks who wouldn't ever be so inclined suddenly feel like they have to have a kilt.

That said, I will grant that it would have been a lot harder to venture out kilted for the first time...especially here in "cowboy" country" if this forum were not up and running. Just knowing that others feel similar reservations and have similar questions is reinforcing if not comforting.

[Phil]

Coming from Scotland I can only comment from that perspective which, I think, will be a little different from most others here. I have lived through three distinct styles of "dressing up", firstly in my youth when virtually all evening social events required a dinner suit (tuxedo) and I never once encountered anyone wearing a kilt. Next casual dress ruled and these events allowed one to wear a lounge suit (or worse) except for weddings when it was normal to hire a tail suit with top hat and gloves. Again I never remember any where a kilt was worn. Then came the 1980's and a phenomenon in Scotland. Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister and Scotland's reaction to that was a fierce nationalism, the reasons for which would not be appropriate here, when the most important thing to do was demonstrate this by wearing a kilt on every possible occasion and, incidentally obliterating her hated party in Scotland. Helped along by the whole "Braveheart" thing kilt-wearing went from a fringe activity to a mainstream one and most self-respecting Scots would now only be seen at a wedding or other event in a kilt. I know this is not universal and I was brought up with the kilt but wearing it was nothing like as universal as it is now.