A few years ago, I had never seen kilts on display in the windows of men’s wear shops in England, apart from the few branches of Scottish tailors, usually in London. Things have changed. One chain of men’s outfitters, Greenwoods, which acts as an agent for a men’s wear hire company, now displays formal kilt outfits for men and boys in the shop windows of many (if not all) of its outlets in the larger towns (certainly in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire). Others advertise ‘Highland wear in gentlemen’s and boy’s sizes’ for hire in local editions of English Yellow Pages, which never used to be the case. It would seem that kilt outfits have become fashionable in England for weddings, especially when one of the families is Scottish. I have also come across an increasing number of instances of boys hiring kilt outfits to wear at school proms in England, even when they are not themselves Scottish.


The other day I got a surprise. The small town where I live has only one small menswear shop, and their window display had always been very conservative (and uninspiring). I couldn’t believe my eyes when I noticed that they had changed their window display since I had last passed by. The new central feature was a man’s formal kilt outfit, with a display card below it informing that Highland wear could be hired at the shop. Kilts seem to be appearing in shop windows all over the place in my neck of the woods. Has anyone else in other parts of England noticed a similar trend?


Rob