It's those closest to you who can be the biggest stumbling block.

[staticsan]

Normally, I get positive comments from friends and strangers alike when I go kilted. Unfortunately, it is my own family that make it hard.

I went kilted today on the 7 Bridges Walk in Sydney. Warm day. Lots of walking. I knew from experience that jeans are too heavy a garment for that -- and I would be annoyed in shorts, too. The kilt was a modern kilt, a black Union Kilt (the pockets are wonderful!) and my mother manages to tolerate it. The snow-camo NeoKilt, she doesn't like.

I met my brother and his family partway around the journey for lunch, and about as far as I was really willing to go after stopping . He didn't say anything, and neither did his wife, but I found out later she didn't like it. However, their kids were not so circumspect, as kids are often wont to be. Two girls, aged 6 and 8. Neither appreciated the kilt and I was told the youngest was avoiding me at first for that reason. The oldest had to be encouraged to ask why I was "wearing a skirt" - I gently corrected her on what it was called and said it was more comfortable than trousers for all the walking I've been doing. She immediately got that (she likes skirts herself). But it was a moment of understanding, not a convert.

Now, this may be because they know me a whole lot better than J. Random Stranger on the street, so still I wonder at the general attitude. But it is disheartening. Especially at all the other stories of people's general approval. I had two people say to me this morning that it was a good choice for the weather...

I do have some traditional kilts on the shopping list, but it will be a while. Earnt funds have been spoken for for quite some months yet.

Wade.

[TheBlueCow]

Unfortunately not everyone is quick to accept the kilt, and sometimes family and friends (people that know you and generally accept you...) fall into that unfortunate category. This can be quite unsettling for us kilties as the discovery of the kilt is usually a profound one and it tends to mean something to us (at least it does to me, and I have no Scottish blood; the kilt just resonates with me well).
I myself am in an unfortunate situation. I still live with my parents (I'm young yet and need to earn quite a bit more than I do in order to be able to afford rent), and while my mother is pretty cool with it, my father on the other hand is conservative, and he doesn't like it. I sense he admires 'the stones' I have in order to wear it because when I do wear them he doesn't say much, but often enough will ask me "Are you wearing that?" before he will go into public with me. This led me to not really wear it this summer, and now that it's heading into fall and and getting chilly I'm really feeling it... But I've decided for next year that I'm kilting regardless. The rebel inside is getting very frustrated with this trouser tyranny I've been enduring.

[Jock Scot]

I do wonder if new kilt wearers wore a traditional tartan kilt,or even a modern tartan kilt,it would receive the same reaction? I suggest that a non tartan modern kilt is, sometimes, a step too far for some people to get their head around in the early stages of kilt acceptance.

[ozth3dog]

I am in the same boat as you are. No one in my family accept's or even approves of me wearing a kilt. The only one who dosen't care about me wearing the kilt is my dad, and that's b/c he has always supported my brother and I in whatever we did. Everyone else is a different story, including my wife unfortunatley. But I still wear it whenever I can and just ignore my family about comments on the kilt and go on with my day.

[Jaggy thistle]

I totally agree with Jock a tartan kilt and sporran is identified as a kilt and not a skirt

[Nick the DSM]

well, you're stuck with family.

[TheBlueCow]

I do wonder if new kilt wearers wore a traditional tartan kilt,or even a modern tartan kilt,it would receive the same reaction? I suggest that a non tartan modern kilt is, sometimes, a step too far for some people to get their head around in the early stages of kilt acceptance.

I've been wondering the same; that it might be easier, for the people that are not so easily accepting, to recognize a tartan kilt. However, in my experiences so far, anyone that is accepting of kilt-wearing has recognized my Utilikilts as kilts and never called them a skirt. This has led me to form the opinion that either someone is accepting of men wearing kilts or they are not, and the only reason they would accept a tartan kilt over a non-tartan kilt is that they recognize it as a costume, and think you are wearing it for some reason (such as, you just got done playing the bagpipes and didn't have time to go home and change...). I haven't worn a tartan kilt yet to see the difference, although I assume that people would recognize it; they would not recognize it as clothing, and but as costume.

I do think that this would achieve the desired affect though, that they would see you in a tartan kilt, recognize it, and then see you in a non-tartan kilt and kind of have a moment where they realize that it's a kilt. Unfortunately it's hard to do this with the mass public, as they only see you once. It would however seem to work on someone whom you knew you were going to see more than once.

[beloitpiper]

I totally agree with Jock a tartan kilt and sporran is identified as a kilt and not a skirt

Ditto.

[Jock Scot]

BlueCow I think you need to understand that even I,who has been wearing the kilt for more than 60 years, still find it hard to accept these modern non tartan things as kilts! So how do you think those that know little or nothing about kilts feel? I have just discussed this point with my wife,who is as Scots as they come, and she just dismissed these modern type, er, well, kilts as skirts. I think that you may be unrealistic,disappointed too no doubt, to expect your non kilt wearing family to embrace the kilt from the off, particularly if you are going down the modern route .Keep trying though. One more thing, the traditional kilt is not a costume. It is Highland Scots attire!

[TheBlueCow]

BlueCow I think you need to understand that even I,who has been wearing the kilt for more than 60 years, still find it hard to accept these modern non tartan things as kilts! So how do you think those that know little or nothing about kilts to feel? I have just discussed this point with my wife,who is as Scots as they come, and she just dismissed these modern type, er, well, kilts as skirts. I think that you may be unrealistic,disappointed too no doubt, to expect your non kilt wearing family to embrace the kilt from the off, particularly if you are going down the modern route .Keep trying though. One more thing, the traditional kilt is not a costume. It is Highland Scots attire!

It's just that here in America, people recognize tartan kilts as costumes; something worn in movies and on bagpipers, not something that anyone wears just to wear. I personally know it not to be a costume, but the general public in America is unfamiliar with them as daily wear and considers them a costume.
Anyone wearing a kilt, modern or traditional, in America is doing something VERY different than the norm. Kilt wearers are pioneers and rebels in America, and we meet people that accept it, people that pretend not to have noticed it, and people that are against it because they consider it a skirt, tartan or not.

I never expected my family to be immediately accepting of the kilt. My point is that they would be no more accepting of a tartan kilt than a modern non-tartan kilt, because to them a kilt is a skirt. I'm actually surprised at the amount of people that do accept, and even like, kilts. It's just disappointing when people close to you, who accept every other aspect of you, are against you and not supportive. Not that I didn't expect it, but it's disappointing regardless.