The choice between plain colour kilts and tartan kilts is simple for me. Plain colour kilts are my preference. I don’t and didn’t wear tartan trousers. Why should I want to wear tartan kilts? My wife is now accepting me wearing plain kilts most of the time including accompanying me to restaurants and to visit friends and family. So I am happy to wear plain coloured kilts.

She has stated that she does not like tartan and won’t go with me if I am wearing tartan. Her stated opinion is that the tartan kilts look like old lady’s tartan pleated skirts or schoolgirls tartan pleated skirts. Without closely looking at a men’s tartan kilt such an initial observation is reasonable. Recently, my family all pointed out to me a guy wearing a tartan “kilt” (over trousers) however he wasn’t wearing a kilt. He was wearing a schoolgirl's skirt. I could tell the difference but they didn’t recognize the difference. So it works both ways. How can the general public recognize the relatively subtle difference in construction and materials?

On the other hand there was another guy at the same event wearing a plain colour knee length leather skirt (without trousers) who walked right past us several times that they didn’t notice at all. So my observation is that tartan is much more noticeable than plain colour. If you want to stand out even more in the crowd, wear tartan. To blend in wear a plain colour.

I expect that my wife feels that a plain colour kilt is less noticeable than a tartan kilt and thus she is more comfortable accompanying me. I’ll go along with that. There is no particular reason I want to wear tartan. I just don’t want to be limited to trousers. So it’s plain colours for me unless I am off on my own to a function where a Scottish style is accepted.

David