lightweight tartan rejected

[OC Richard]

On this forum we have a large number of people who got into kiltwearing fairly recently, at a time when there are a vast number of kiltwearing options, and often people have posted about their Utilikilts or PV kilts or sport kilts or casual kilts or what have you, and at times these have been mentioned as a "gateway drug" to full-yardage heavyweight wool traditional kilts.

I've mentioned from time to time a couple things about my own kiltwearing and attitutude 1) that I got into kiltwearing in the mid-1970s at a time when the only kilts around were full-yardage wool traditional kilts, the only option being mediumweight or heavyweight; 2) this sort of kilt is the only kind I have ever owned or worn; and 3) that to this day the "pipe band scene" and "solo competition scene" regards only these kilts as being acceptable for band and solo piping use.

This was made clear yesterday when we had a band meeting to discuss, amongst other things, getting new kilts.

I brought in three kilts for "the lads" to see, a 16/17oz Isle of Skye, a 16/17oz Auld Scotland, and a 10/11oz MacDonald.

All the pipers who took a close look at the kilts did so not only with their eyes but also grabbed the edge to feel the fabric between their fingers, and the lightweight kilt was summarily rejected by all. (Us fellows represent, between us, over two hundred years of kiltwearing.)

Call us pipers traditionalists, or snobs. Or maybe it's just a matter of liking what we're accustomed to, and all of us have been wearing 8 yard 16oz wool kilts our entire piping lives. But it was clear that whatever tartan we go with, it will be in heavyweight wool!