untraditional traditions

[davidlpope]

Damn fine looking jacket and weskit but not especially American, I don't think you'd have much trouble finding that in Scotland. I had also thought of the Ike Jacket but dismissed it because it was based on the British BD blouse but actually it is quite distinctly American.

My design for a Western/Argyle Hybrid:



and the a photo of the jacket it is based on:

As Todd has pointed out, this is not an "American" jacket that would be universal to all those living in the US; it is a "Western" jacket that would perhaps work for a kilted cowboy in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, etc.

Likewise, I can imagine a blue and white seersucker kilt jacket for those of us who are blessed to be Southerners, but I doubt that Americans in other areas of the nation would welcome it as their own. The problem is that the US is a large country with strong regional identities. As such, I don't think that any one regional identity would be adopted by the other regions in the same way that Traditional Highland Civilian Dress (THCD) has been adopted by the rest of Scotland as national attire.

Additionally, for some of us, kilt-wearing is a means of signifying that we are Americans of Scottish descent, not Americans in a general sense. Given that, I don't know that there's a desire for "uniquely American" items of highland dress beyond state, military, or American tartans.

David