kilt history question

[haukehaien]

... but their armor is a metallic skirt, which I'm sure has a fancy name to it, but I digress. Could early kilts be an attempt to replicate the armor of the invaders, not necessarily by seeing and mimicking, but from the stories that spread? Especially the box pleats, I would think, would behave in a similar way to the armored skirts.

It seems unlikely that the first kilt wearers (c. 1600 AD) were mimicking armor worn by Romans c. 100 BC, or even were influenced by stories of Roman armor.

It seems to me certainly true that legless male garments in many cultures predate recorded history, though I know of no extant proof of what we now call kilts before the late 16th century.

If you think about it, wrapped cloth is probably the simplest garment to make, so it shouldn't be too surprising that so many cultures independently arrived at the skirt-like garment. Some of these may be derived from each other, but I suspect there's plenty of evidence for independent choice of the unbifurcated garment.

I still think the kilt was invented by a man who was trying to figure out a good way to start the campfire without getting out of his blankets on a cold wet morning.