This forum has changed me...

[OC Richard]

I dawned on me recently that joining and participating in this forum has changed my attitude towards the kilt, towards Highland Dress.

Being a piper and spending most of my life playing in pipe bands, I had pretty much gone over to the standard attitude that pipe band people have towards the kilt: it's something you are required to wear when you play, and is therefore somewhat resented and disliked.

It's why you see pipe band people walking around Games in partial uniform: maybe wearing their hose and ghillies but with shorts, the hated kilt not put on until the moment the band has to play, and removed instantly afterwards.

Or in the kilt but with sneakers/trainers instead of the hated ghillies. Or whatever.

And pipers/drummers who are not actually playing or judging at a Games, but attending simply to listen and hang out and schmooze, would never dream of wearing their kilt. It just isn't done. It isn't "cool". To be "cool" the piper/drummer must show up in t-shirt etc. (At any pipe band competition there are dozens of top pipers, drummers, judges, etc standing around watching and schmoozing dressed like that.)

In spite of my lifelong love of Highland Dress, I found myself conforming to this attitude.

This forum has changed me. It has got me to appreciate and value Highland Dress more, and has got me to wear it at times when I'm not required to wear it.

So at two Highland Games I've attended this year I've shown up kilted even though I'm not currently in a band. My piping buddies have asked me dozens of times "so, are you playing today?" and when I say that I'm not, they're a bit puzzled.

This weekend is our largest local Games, Costa Mesa, and I'll attend kilted, to the surprise/consternation of my piping friends. So be it!
(If I showed up in a Utilikilt it would really get them going!)

[Jordan]

I dawned on me recently that joining and participating in this forum has changed my attitude towards the kilt, towards Highland Dress.

Being a piper and spending most of my life playing in pipe bands, I had pretty much gone over to the standard attitude that pipe band people have towards the kilt: it's something you are required to wear when you play, and is therefore somewhat resented and disliked.

It's why you see pipe band people walking around Games in partial uniform: maybe wearing their hose and ghillies but with shorts, the hated kilt not put on until the moment the band has to play, and removed instantly afterwards.

Or in the kilt but with sneakers/trainers instead of the hated ghillies. Or whatever.

And pipers/drummers who are not actually playing or judging at a Games, but attending simply to listen and hang out and schmooze, would never dream of wearing their kilt. It just isn't done. It isn't "cool". To be "cool" the piper/drummer must show up in t-shirt etc. (At any pipe band competition there are dozens of top pipers, drummers, judges, etc standing around watching and schmoozing dressed like that.)

In spite of my lifelong love of Highland Dress, I found myself conforming to this attitude.

This forum has changed me. It has got me to appreciate and value Highland Dress more, and has got me to wear it at times when I'm not required to wear it.

So at two Highland Games I've attended this year I've shown up kilted even though I'm not currently in a band. My piping buddies have asked me dozens of times "so, are you playing today?" and when I say that I'm not, they're a bit puzzled.

This weekend is our largest local Games, Costa Mesa, and I'll attend kilted, to the surprise/consternation of my piping friends. So be it!
(If I showed up in a Utilikilt it would really get them going!)

Go on you know you want to

[MacBean]

the standard attitude that pipe band people have towards the kilt: it's something you are required to wear when you play, and is therefore somewhat resented and disliked.

I can see why piper's dress in the hot sun wouldn't be fun. To me this simply illustrates something so obvious in this forum - that traditional highland dress of a formal sort never fully adapted to the different climate of the New Worlds. Much as I acknowledge that the Highlanders among us own the tradition, without adaptation to time and place, there will always be discordancies like you mention and we see in this forum.

Are there other reasons for the resentment and dislike beyond comfort? Does the piper's outfit seem too much of a costume for public consumption?

[toadinakilt]

Slightly related, it took my wife an extra amount of cajoling to get me to wear a tux at our wedding... as a cellist, tuxes are, or at least were at the time, working garb. Anytime a specific uniform is required, I think there's a tendency to shy away from that uniform if you don't have to wear it.

[auld argonian]

I've noticed that strange, schizophrenic thing that pipe band folks have about wearing the kilt...it's some kind of necessary evil that's only worn when playing and zipped up in a travel bag ASAP when the playing is done.

I can understand the need to keep the band kilt neat and clean for competition and just for basic pride in presenting a neat appearance when playing but why not the second kilt for hanging out? Odds are that the band kilt won't be a tartan that the member has a familial connection with so why not (other than the expense) pick up something for casual wear?

Best

AA

[MacMillans son]

I think for me there is a point(s) of maturity, for lack of a better word, and peace when the things "I have to do" become the things "I want to do". Many of us are naturally resentful of the things in life we feel that we have to do (make our bed, brush our teeth, go to school) when we are younger. But, for which at some time in our development we do because we understand the value of them and actually want to do them (make our bed, brush our teeth, go to college as an adult). When I was able to shift my perception of the things I have to do, to be the things that I want to do, my life got (gets) much more comfortable.

I am happy for your shift OC! In the short time I have been on this forum I too have been helped immensely.

Well, I'm going to get off this computer and go to work... because I want to :-)

Brooke

[wildrover]

Are there other reasons for the resentment and dislike beyond comfort? Does the piper's outfit seem too much of a costume for public consumption?

How many pipe band outfits have you seen? Most of them--outside of some Grade I bands, traveling performance bands, etc.--look exactly the same, like they're getting their kit from the same kilt hire companies that give everyone stark white hose and a PC with a fly plaid.

The getup screams I AM WEARING A UNIFORM.

IMHO, it does look like a costume, and I'd rather not wear it, either.

On the other hand, I don't think anyone could reasonably expect a Grade IV band to pony up for the often sky-high prices of good, classy Highland wear...so seeing as how black jackets with huge chrome buttons, black vests, white hose, red flashes and white shirts are inexpensive and easy to come by, that's what's worn.

And I think it's a crying shame.

Unfortunately, as expensive as any of this stuff is, it takes a while to change an entire band, particularly when a good amount of the kit is on loan from the band...IIRC in the band I'm a student with, only shirt, tie, hose and shoes are purchased by the members.

I don't think it's a matter of rebellion at all, just a matter of taste...although I know I'd raise an eyebrow if I saw somebody in shorts with their kilt hose and flashes on...and if it were anybody I knew, I'd give them hell over it...

[piperdbh]

When I was in marching band in high school, we had to wear a uniform, and as sson as the football game or parade was over, we ripped those uniforms off as quickly as possible. Some other folks have already said it here, but the whole "kilt as uniform" thing probably throws off the enjoyment of the kilt.

[GMan]

Not a piper, but I too am glad that this is such a great place to appreciate what we have.

[Brian K]

This forum has changed me. It has got me to appreciate and value Highland Dress more, and has got me to wear it at times when I'm not required to wear it.

So at two Highland Games I've attended this year I've shown up kilted even though I'm not currently in a band. My piping buddies have asked me dozens of times "so, are you playing today?" and when I say that I'm not, they're a bit puzzled.

This weekend is our largest local Games, Costa Mesa, and I'll attend kilted, to the surprise/consternation of my piping friends. So be it!
(If I showed up in a Utilikilt it would really get them going!)

LOL, Richard. I have a hard time accepting non-tartan or non-tweed kilts as proper. They just don't work for me. I guess they don't seem Scottish to me. That being said, it might just be worth it for you to buy and wear a UK around your pipe playing friends just for the laugh you'd get out of them. If I had the money I'd buy you one myself.

Regards,

Brian