Ok, now that i have the time to type all this out, i can tell you all the story of how i came to be looking at kilts online and, in the process, discovered this forum.

It will probably be a bit of a ramble as there's much to tell that I find intersting and significant, so I'll include a TL, DR at the end if you don't want to go into all that.

It started the summer I was 19 and had discovered the Rennisance Festival ( and many other things not related to the story.) I had attended the Michigan renisance fair dressed in a rather silly outfit i had bought from a SCA camp out (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society...ve_Anachronism If you havn't heard of them) consisting of blue and yellow tights and a matching "period" shirt. I decided to replace it with a kilt.

Now i had been mulling the idea of buying a kilt for a few years, and i think seeing how cool Axel Rose looked wearing one put me over the top. I HAD to Have one. I had no idea about anything, but a friend of a friend of mine named Jimmy worked at "Kilts and More" wich was what the fair's Kilt Booth was called back then (no idea if it still is.)

So Jimmy walks me though the process, and i have to choose a color so i chose a MacKintosh for a few reasons. First i thought of all plaid (I had no idea the work meant different things on this side of the pond) as being red/green, probably because that was the color of the Scotch Tape dispensers i grew up with Second, the name reminded me of computers and apples, not altogether unpeasant things. Now after haveing read up a bit I see that theres a lot more to higland fasion, but to my young mind the rennasance festival was the authority on what a "real" kilt was and i was happy. Jimmy outfitted me with a one-size-fits-all Jacobite(ish) shirt, flashers, socks (hose?,) a spooran and what not. When all was said and done this became my new ren fest outfit.


Outside renfest i rarely got to where it. I wore it to a small dance club once to see if i would get noticed. I didn't really, but probably more due to my being self concious at the time than anything else. I also did a stint as a Host for a restaurant in Okemos Michigan called "British Isles" as sort of a college job. I just showed up for the interview in the kilt and got hired. This was pretty cool for a week or 2, but i kind of got sick of wearing the same costume every day. (Yes i used the word costume, sorry.) It also really sucked when some (real?) Scotts came in for a party and my outfit just looked plain silly, although in retrospect i think some of those guys had Sport kilts and im pretty sure mine was Wool, but thier acessories were waaaay better.

Years passed. I Met the woman who is now my wife, had a son, and stopped going to renfest altogether. I did get to go with the wife once, and to a Yule party Hosted by my friend from the fair. It was here I discovered that Jimmy (the guy who sold the kilt to me) Is an old freind of my wife's, and that through a bizzare process of blended families and 2nd marrages, my son and his are now related. (He had a son with my wifes aunt whos actually younger than she is back when they were in high school...don't ask.) Jimmy passed away a few years back. I hardly knew him apart from seeing him around the fair, but my wife was very sad.

At some point my wife washed the damn thing after it had gotten dirty in storage, and this is what leads me to suspect it was real wool, it SHRANK LIKE HELL. At this point in my life i had other things to worry about, i had been laid off and had to go on the road (I'm a truck driver), had some personal difficulties i wont go into, so the loss of the Kilt wasn't a big deal to me. But last week, after a long period of unemployment, I finally managed to get a local hourly job with regular day hours.

My son Needed a holloween costume. I'm waiting for my first check, and money is tight, so I worked with what i have. I decided to canabalize the old garment to put something together last minute that would make my son happy, and make me feel proud not embarassed to be seen walking around with him.

So take one water shrunken Kilt, add a nerf Claymore and you have a nice William Wallace/Higlander/Rob Roy costume.


We had a blast, and he got some complements toward the end of the night when there was time to talk at houses and not mobs of children running about.

The thing i DIDN'T anticipate, was the pang of sorrow i felt to see the old thing shrunked, moth eaten, and forgotton. I feel the need to replace it. It wont be soon. I need to catch up on some bills, my son broke his glasses, car needs breaks etc. etc. But by next summer i want my new kilt, and next fall i want to go back to the fair.

Thers a few more things i want to talk about, but this had gone on long enough for one post.


TL,DR : Never let your wife wash your Kilt, or you will have an expensive holloween costume for your kid.