Why did you start wearing a kilt?

[Leprechaun 91]

My father first met his own dad when I was about ten. My mother had done much research and interrogation to find the man.

Once we found him, we began doing some genealogical research for medical / genetic reasons. ( I have genetic eye problems and My mother wanted to know how it might progress as I aged. )

Well, the family turned out to be of Scottish decent with several crossed branches. My mother's family too had Scottish roots.

I fell in love with the concept of heritage and family beyond my own nuclear "village." The idea that our family was so large and divers with such a rich history fascinated me.

It didn't hurt that the music touches me in a way I cannot even begin to describe. Even at eleven - years - old, I was moved to tears by the pipes. It somehow strikes me on a spiritual / soul level.

Anyway, I am rambling...

My first kilt was a TANK from Geoffrey Taylor. (Ancient Campbell 16 oz) I was 16. I wore this for "formal events" and games. I always had a flair for the dramatic and had no fear of the "extra attention."

Well, 22 years later I still wear the kilt. I too don't wear it as much as I would like, but my wife is actually encouraging me to go about kilted more often. (I will of course be honoring that request.. ;)

Slainte

[SteveB]

I can't remember NOT wearing a kilt.

Did not get my first set of britches until I was six. Didn't like them then and I still don't like them now. My mother's side of the family is Scot. She raised my sister and I on the auld traditions. Almost any family event meant wearing the kilt. Now that I am auld and don't care much about what others call it or think about it, I wear it.

[auld argonian]

Grew up on the South Side of Chicago in a neighborhood that was very Irish-American, so there were kilts but only on the people in bagpipe bands (the Stockyards Kiltie Band and the Emerald Society) and on the very few boys that were involved in Irish Dancing.

The "party line" in my family was that my mother's side was Irish on my grandmother's side and "Scots-Irish" on grandfather's. Subsequent research turned up a lot of interesting material about grandfather's forebearers and it turned out that they were pretty much the most interesting and colorful part of my heritage. Still didn't get the "Scots-Irish" thing, though.

So fast forward to the spring of 2004 when I chanced upon "Monarch of the Glen" running on a local PBS station. Impressed by the character Duncan who always wears the kilt. That kind of put it in the back of my mind. Then we went to see the Monty Python musical Spamalot, which tried out here in Chicago before it went to New York...noticed one young man in his kilt and Argyle Jacket and thought that it looked mighty snappy. Thought upon it further and began to think that I might give it a try. Started looking on the internet for kilts...was blown away by the prices of a complete outfit.

In shock, I stumbled around the 'net for a while and finally found Xmarksthescot and lurked for a bit. Here I got some solid information and learned about such things as Stillwater Kilts and USA Kilts and that you could get started without emptying the piggy bank. Obviously, like a lot of people, I wasn't so sure that this was going to work out and didn't want to get too heavily invested in it...

But it surely did work out and I eventually registered on the forum and got to know some of these kilt-o-maniacs and found them to be a fantastic, supportive and intelligent bunch. Got to meet several of them and got together with them at the Highland Games. Eventually got a couple of tanks and a proper jacket and there you are.

Best

AA

[Tiny]

When I was in high school my mother and grandmother had set about to researching the geneology and found a few strong ties to Scotland. As I learned more about my families past I became intrigued with the history of Scotland and all things Scottish.

This year I had the chance to attend the local Highland Games in my town (I always ended up working in past years) when I arrived I felt a little under dressed with so many kilts around. While I was at the Games I found a vendor selling what I now know to be a Gold's Brothers kilts. Not sure what tartan I could get away with and the salesman not knowing as much about what he was selling as one really should when selling products I selected a solid black kilt as an obvious "safe" choice. In 95 degree heat I strolled around the games in my new kilt more comfortable then I could ever remember being.

My comfort in the kilt and family heritage I felt confident that I could make the kilt my everyday wear. Started assembling my kit to make everyday kilt wear a reality and without fail I have been a daily kilt wearer since mid August this year. I have had the normal ribbing from friends but over all they seem to have accepted it. I work everyday in that same solid black kilt at Starbucks.

The only hurdle I have left will be going kilted in front of the rest of my family. My parents are always supportive but I'm from a very baptist family where "cross dressing" is a one way ticket to Hell. Going to need to find/make a nice argyll jacket for my first kilted trip to the family church.

[derosa]

For whatever reason I always liked the look of the kilt. When the wife and I started discussing marriage plans 5 years ago I wanted to get married in a kilt. Three problems arose, she is alergic to wool and didn't know how she would react to that many wool kilts, neither of our family tartans were available in synthetic material, and her uncles who were walking her down the isle didn't want to pay that much for a one time use item. Since then the main issue has always been cost, I hate spending money on clothes so I've since made one and sprang for a sport kilt which didn't fit. The main recent push to buy one has been that I've always like wearing shorts from late feb till late Dec/early Jan despite always living in nothern NY and I have finally decided that I've grown a little too old to wear shorts exclusively. Mostly cause I'm working on getting a career as a minister and need something better to wear when I'm at the office and at meetings.

[Fit2BKilted]

I've always been an odd-ball in every milieu; so, I quickly embraced it as part of my persona. Still, I'm a bit of a traditionalist, in the most unconventional, yet respectful, way: I'd relished the thought of wearing vintage, antique, and foreign clothing daily (when going nude was infeasible) beginning in my early teens. Then I got a job at Old Fort Henry in Kingston, and always envied the Pipers for their cool uniforms (literally, compared to the layered, quilted and padded red serge Battle Dress of a Victorian British Regular I had to wear), but I was completely inept at playing musical instruments, in addition to being certain that I was a "Norman-invader" and not the least bit Scottish. Nonetheless, my father has a formidable reputation as an ascetic bargain-hound---if I'd only known then that he came by it honestly! Anyway, it wasn't until my mother-in-law---who's an avid genealogist---mentioned that she was a Turnbull, and picked out several Scots surnames from my family tree (mostly matrilineal) that I felt emboldened to take up the kilt (having previously been dissuaded from doing so by my piper-friends) if only in a native (custom-weave) district tartan, but that proved to be grossly over-budget. Finally, I got to doing some genelogical research myself... Lo and behold, I found that my own surname was a sept of a Donald sub-clan, and that most of the surnames in the region where I grew up were Scottish, principally because the whole area was settled by United Empire Loyalist veterans of the American Revolutionary War! That was all the excuse I needed! I did some research, found this forum, more research, pining and bargain-hunting, until finally, my wife bought me my first kilt for my birthday, and I've been happily kilted ever since! Now I want more kilts, and especially to have the tartan I designed woven. My kids have taken to their new-found Scottish ancestry as well, and are dead-set on learning Highland Dancing... I couldn't be more proud.

[BroosterB1]

Started as a lark to accommodate a client. They wanted a kilted wedding and that's what they got. I was ah, uh, "frugal" yeah, that's the word when I found out how much they were going to spend to rent me a kilt, found Frugal Corner and bought one of their heavy weights in a cleric tartan, split the price with the couple. So I got a kilt, and they got the kilted minister. I figured what the heck, if I don't like it well I can give it to the local theather arts department.

Then I put it on....Hooked, hook line and sinker, completely hooked. Found X-marks. Thought, Hey great grandma was a Gordon, bought a kilt. Thought I like my Hawaiian shirts, I wonder what a Irish saffron would look like with my Tommy Bahama, bought a kilt. Thought I would like to wear one of those Ultiliy Kilts, saw one on the forum and bought a kilt. Fast forward to find that my surname is a sept of Lindsay clan, bought a kilt. See a pattern here?

Year later, I look forward to putting on me kilt when ever I damn well please! Oh, and I have another coming, sometime my kilt will come.....ith:

[O'Callaghan]

I blame the wife, LOL! We have been to a number of 'new age' events on her account, camping out for long weekends. She's very into camping also, as well as being religious enough for both of us. I don't even believe in one god, much less multiples of them.

A lot of people of both genders wear sarongs at these kind of things, and a few of the men wear kilts, perhaps in some vague and fuzzy way combining what their celtic forebears may have worn with worshipping, or at least learning about, the gods (plural) that they may have believed in.

I was eventually persuaded to try sarongs, which I found I liked, but tended to trip over the hem!* The wife pointed out that I wasn't likely to trip over the hem of a kilt, but I wasn't convinced, because I am not in any way Scottish. I have cousins in Scotland, but I'm not even remotely of Scottish descent. My wife, however, is 1/4 Scottish, clan Davidson through her maternal grandmother.

However, I am definitely of Irish descent, I think 1/8, but don't quote me. I'm not sure where I became aware of Irish kilts, possibly while looking for ladies kilts in clan Davidson, something I still haven't bought her. I bought myself a kilt in Irish National tartan on an impulse, and don't seem to be able to stop acquiring more!

*Not merely an inconvenience - sarongs tear easily and are soon ruined if you keep stepping on the hem!

[Geoff Withnell]

A desire to honor my Celtic Heritage.. I am a work in progress, learning and developing my style, from what I have learned off this site.

Brother, we are all works in progress, if we are still above ground!

I am what I call "generic Celtic" with primarily Welsh, but some Scots, Irish, and even a little Cornwall thrown into the mix. I wore a great kilt at the Maryland Renfair, and found I liked it. I could afford a Stillwater Thrifty so I tried that. It just sort of snowballed from there. I am told by the only person whose opinion I really care about (my Lady, Michele) that I look very good in a kilt. I am more comfortable in a kilt. So now I need a reason to put on trousers.

Geoff Withnell

[Bugbear]

Strangely, this sounds like a question one asks while pounding one's head against the wall...

My story is too boring to tell.