What brought you to wearing a kilt?

[EagleJCS]

I started out taking piping lessons. (Been wanting to do so for years and finally found an instructor - long story for another time). My instructor invited me to go to the local Highland Games where I found there was a Clan Scott! After talking to the conveners there and doing some family research, I ordered my own kilt a year later.

Still not sure if I'm actually a Scottish Scott - some of the records from mid-1700's western Virginia (not West Virginia, that came later) - are hard to come by for some reason. (Maybe three wars and a couple of natural disasters???)

[thoth51]

I'm a fan of the Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast. One of the running jokes in the show is that the lone female member on the show often made fun of the other male members for wearing fanny packs and jones-ing for nerdy gadget holders like 'utility belts' to hold their stuff. This then became a topic in the discussion forum where fans suggested non-dorky alternatives to the fanny pack. The Utilikilt Survivor came up and I was intrigued. From there I learned about the kilt movement and the various interest groups.

I still don't own a UK though. They don't deliver to my country and the price is a little high for me. I found the Amerikilt website and now own 3, together with one camo-kilt I had tailored locally. My first SWK Black Watch is on its way.

[long_hand]

EagleJCS,

In Washington County during the middle or late 1700's there was a rather disastrous fire that consumed a public records building that housed the majority of Virginia records. This is why anyone whose ancestors came through and lived in Va are typically hard to find.

[Ancienne Alliance]

My family is of Scottish, Irish, Breton and Norman ancestry.

My father would often dress me up in a kilt to show me off to friends and neighbours.

I hated it.

When he gave me his own kilt when I was about 15, I discarded it... so much the pain of humiliation was acute.

I regret it today, of course.

I spent many years of my life turning my back to the kilt and even mocking it.

Then slowly, step by step , I wanted to "solve this problem with my father" and wear the kilt again.

I wish he were still alive to see me in this attire.




Best,

Robert

[Derek Conley]

I've had an interest for a long while, but started seeing friends wearing Utilikilts a few years ago and became intrigued. Decided I was going to buy one at Dragon*Con but they were sold out; the idea went on the back burner until going back to Dragon*Con last year... I revisited the idea but this time, UK didn't have a booth anywhere. I kept the interest though, found this forum, then purchased a SportKilt in the Law Enforcement tartan. I've since purchased a Sportkilt in their "Hunting" tartan from a member here, was issued an IOS from the pipe band I compete with, and ordered a 13oz Leatherneck tartan kilt from Rocky.

[herminator]

In the 70´s I lived in Burma, where the national dress is the longyi, a cousin of the sarong. Back in Germany I started wearing it at home - after definitely wearing trousers as a kid!!! - again since my 30´s.
In 2004 - oktober - I stumbled upon Jan Bruyndonckx´s website: here
and decided to try making a kilt. I got hooked very quickly and have made a few more since then, wearing trousers only where I have to - at work.

So I am one of the minority I guess who dived into DIY right from the start!

[CDNSushi]

Interesting thread. Nice to see some of the various responses, especially from the folks who don't post so often. :-) They came out of the woodwork。

My own story is a bit of an amalgamation of a couple other stories I saw on here. I never dreamed of wearing a kilt until a couple years ago... When I was in college, once I knocked on the door of a friend who happened to be from Burma, only to be shocked to discover that he and his brother wore sarongs around the apartment. Well, I thought that was as cool as heck, and asked them why they never wore them out. Turns out they were much too embarrassed. So, I figured -- seems pretty durn comfortable, so I acquired a couple sarongs of my own -- not from Burma, but thanks to the local fabric store -- sewed my own. Soon, I got lazy and just plain tired of wearing em around the apartment so I just started wearing them out too. Couldn't understand why my Burmese friends could never bring themselves to wear them out -- people hardly ever looked at me twice when I wore mine, so that's the way that I quickly got accustomed to wearing MUGs... I never grew tired of my sarongs as they were just so comfortable to wear, so I just kept wearing them. Then, many years later, I had the good fortune of getting some beautiful sarongs from Sri Lanka, which I wear to this day. They are especially wonderful on warm, summer evenings. Anyway, this forum is not a MUG forum so on to the the kilt portion of my story...

One day, I read a newspaper article about a company called Utilikilts and how they were making a splash in the greater Seattle area and beyond with their unconventional kilts. I got very interested, looked up the website but was quite dismayed at the price. I bookmarked the page anyway, and decided that those kilts looked mighty comfortable -- much like the sarongs that I already enjoyed wearing very much, and when I managed to get some extra dough, someday, I'd get me a Utilikilt. The wife already liked me in a sarong, so I figured that this shouldn't take much work for her to get used to.

Then, last year, when the occasion of "having a bit of extra money" came, I kept the promise to myself and ordered a UK tan original, and told my wife that I ordered a kilt off the Internet. She was shocked to say the least, but said very little. On the day it arrived, I came home from work in the afternoon, received the package from the delivery guy, and immediately tried it on -- it fit like a glove. Then, about 20 minutes later, the wife came home and saw me wearing my new UK. The first words out of her mouth were,

"Wow! So that's your new kilt, huh? It's nothing like I ever would have expected. When you said "a kilt" I was thinking... you know... like a tartan kilt..."

20 minutes after that, the UK was little more than a crumpled up heap next to the bed.... lol

Interesting thing about my UK... With it arrived some tags and a little graphic showing the difference between a UK and a trad. kilt (of course emphasizing the superiority of the UK)... But, that really intrigued me. It really got me thinking about trad. kilts. So I searched on the web a bit, and discovered the eBook Kilts & Tartan Made Easy by Dr. Nicholas J. Fiddes (still available free of charge from the Scotweb webpage, by the way)... I read it with great interest and became convinced that kilts must be the greatest thing since sliced bread, and decided that I just had to get one.

Well, about that time I discovered XTMS and started lurking, and I also ran across Stillwater and noticed the fantastic reviews Jerry got from all sorts of folks (not just XTMS members) so I went ahead and ordered a Nightstalker Standard, hose, belt and sporran. I told my wife I what I did and she was rather dubious (but not critical). When it arrived, I again tried it on, saw that it fit like a glove, and once again, wore it for about 20 minutes before the kilt was little more than a crumpled up heap next to the bed.

At this point, few months after that, when I ordered my KM Hunting Stewart and Jacobite shirts, there were zero objections or questions from the wife, (other than the fact that when my wife first saw me wearing my Hunting Stewart, I once again only got to wear it for roughly 20 minutes before it ended up a crumpled heap next to the bed)... Then after a trip to the Highland Games in Chiba (near Tokyo) the wife realized that it wasn't just her crazy husband running around kilted... Nosireebob. There were other nuts as well. ;-) No surprise then, when I received my Black Watch and PC jacket from Geoffrey of Pakistan, (that fit like a glove), it was a huge hit when we went to see a musical in Tokyo, had a night on the town, and the PC, kilt, etc, ended up a crumpled h...... yeah.. You know the rest...

Finally, when I found out about Marchbrae of Edinburgh, and saw their inexpensive IOS, it was my wife that insisted I buy it! Less than a week later, it came by courier, I tried it on, and of course it fit like a glove! Showed it to my wife, and 20 minutes later....

With that kind of positive reinforcement, I may have as many kilts as Hamish one of these days. Nevertheless, my wife and I are both hooked. She loves the IOS wool scarf I got her to match my kilt when we go out, and she really liked her Christmas present, a Black Watch ancient mini kilt. For what it's worth, she only wore it for about 20 minutes...

[herminator]

Cool!! Another Burma connection!

[Declan Rowan]

At the risk of sounding stereotypical, I started wearing a kilt because of the lasses. Well, one in particular. She was interested in kilted men, and I figured it would be a good way to get her attention. Things didn't work out between us (She was an "Old Money" family, I was a kid with "No Money") but the kilt was comfortable and the peripheral attention from other lasses made up for it. Then when I was starting a pub band, it got us some attention as "the band with the guy in a kilt."

[CDNSushi]

Hehe.. Yeah, they're a wonderful people! Seriously. I'd really love to visit once the political climate is more receptive to Western tourism... <sigh>

Again, I know this isn't a MUG forum, but I know for a fact that a good number of us got started on kilts through other unbifurcated garments that are traditionally worn in areas outside Scotland. There's really no denying the comfort.