First kilt

[DerekvG]

I'm nearing my 60th birthday , and together with my dad who is 88 we considered ourselves Belgian Anglofiles.. my children are british citizens, I worked in London for over 5 years. My grandparents were in the UK during WWI, my gran was a resistance radio operator in WWII, my father's nickname was the "Englishman" ( and as he ages he looks more and more the part). Unbeknown to us was that my father had an unknown father and my grandfather was our adoptive/step-parent... that secret had been taken into eternal rest by my father's parents, but like oil the truth floats to the surface.
When we got some evidence about the fact that my gran was unmarried when she gave birth to my father, we also got some very nice clues as to the identity of my real grand father. The most likelly candidates all are related to Scotland..
My father my son and I we love pipe music and marching bands for a number of years we have been attending events, Scottish weekends and pipe festivals.
So after hesitating for a long time i bought myself and my son our first kilts. 2 set of Hunting Stewart 5 Yd casual kilts, hoses, flashes, kilt pins bets and sporrans arrived form Tartanista ( in London) which I located through Dress2Kilt as a source for value kilts.
I tried my set on, put on my jeans and went of to do my stuff, after lunch I tried the kilt outfit on again, completely this time, and I had to do run some errands so I decided to keep my kilt on ... did I mention I live in Belgium ... so kilts are not am everyday sight in our streets. I only got some reaction at the gym, but it was nice.
I can only repeat the advice that greg ( greman the webmaster of Dress2kilt) wrote on his site : in order to get acquainted with the kilt as a way of dressing it doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg.
I hired kilts before once for a wedding the first time I looked like a clown because they had given me a military type jacket that is mainly worn by pipe bands (useless to say that the jacket never got worn) but the second time around, for the wedding, wedding planner had a very nice address and quality stuff most of us had the same kilt and it was a nice experience and comfy outfit. thanks to the experienced hire shop staff and it came for me with and Crail jacket and waistcoat ( iḿ rather heavy at the lower "chest").
The kilt is a nice, comfy fabric somewhat rough but not too heavy, comfy in warmer weather. Its well made correctly folded at the back with an inner lining , 3 leather straps and 3 belt rings, 24" long just just on my knee, I feel well - casually - dressed with a casual white shirt over it, hoses and matching flashes .
So now its time to get used to wearing it and then I will save some money and think about getting a more formal 8Yrd kilt outfit with an Argyll or Crail jacket .

Now I feel Iḿ realy part of the kilt-waering community..