my favourite topic. Dress codes.

[Jock Scot]

Hello Harvey, I wonder if the tweed fashion in town is a younger generation thing, or is it across the board? In another life many moons ago, I used to spend a bit of time in London and my friends when they saw me in my tweed sports jacket used to ask in a good natured way, "off catching rats again Jock?"

[HarveyH]

Two separate factors have made tweed trendy, at the younger end, the adoption of a tweed jacket by the previous Dr Who incarnation has led to a huge shift in the styling and wearing of jackets - some of the high street shops openly acknowledged Dr Who as inspiration. But the second is the documented work of Patrick Grant and some others to save Harris Tweed, finding new markets e.g. : Porsche, Nike and bringing the wonders of the cloth to the attention of a wole new generation of fashion designers.

[Jock Scot]

That is good news indeed Harvey. Thank you for that.

[CMcG]

I can't speak for London, but in Toronto it appears that a tweed jacket (with p@nts) is considered quite dressed up by some people. In the fall and winter, I often wear a Harris tweed sports coat, open-collared shirt (no tie), dark jeans, and polished brogues when I'm teaching at the university. I've had both students and staff comment on this as being "dressy," which is probably relative to the more casual outfits other teachers have gravitated towards in recent years. In what may be a generational difference, a number of undergrads have even called this outfit a "suit"!

[Jock Scot]

I despair Colin! I really do. Just what is the world coming to if the undergrads don't even know what a suit is! I think its time to pull up the drawbridge and have a large dram------- and then another!

[Father Bill]

The main problem you will have, is that the majority of Southerners, who know absolutely nothing about kilt attire do not know that a tweed kilt jacket is lounge/business suit equivalent and will assume, quite wrongly of course, that you are incorrectly attired.

We would hope and expect that the general public will keep their thoughts to themselves -------it won't stop them from thinking AND drawing the wrong conclusion though. For me, that actually matters.

Precisely why I sometimes feel pressure to over-dress a wee bit here in Canada.

[James Hood]

Hmm.

Downtown, business / theatre / shopping / restaurant / museum / university district Chicago is certainly "littered" with "suits" of all ages and both genders. Similarly, as there are 3.5 M people inside city limits and another 6.8 M or so in the semicircle immediately around the city (the Lake is the other half)...

...as another astute X-Marker or three noted, folks are busy with their own lives to actively care about your wardrobe preference. There is veritably every manner and level of dress to be seen and go 2 blocks, the garb of 5+ cultures will be identifiable. In addition to the aforementioned "suits," there are mobs of students, tradespeople, admin/office, instructors, shopkeepers...oh, and musicians...in all kit from near-rags to beatnik-hippie-goth-hipster-gansta-artiste, or carrying an instrument case into the Lyric Opera or Symphony Hall in tuxedo / black evening dress.

A kilt gets little attention and few comments, veriatbly all positive.

[O'Callaghan]

I'm originally a Londoner, and I think you would have to wear a tutu to even get noticed there.

FWIW, I used to work in a suit-and-tie job in London that involved spending a lot of time in a public place with people who worked for other employers (no, not the stock exchange, it was a reading room). One chap always used to wear a kilt, and he always wore a tweed jacket. According to Jock Scot, I think he was correctly attired.

That said, you would be fine if you chose to dye your hair green. No-one would think it out of the ordinary in London.

[cizinec]

Should one decide to wear the kilt and tweed kilt jacket to London, New York, Dallas, etc., one thing for certain sure will happen should one be surrounded by suits, most will be thinking kindly no doubt,; "why is that chap wearing a sports jacket?"

That may be true for New York and London, but in Dallas they're either going to wonder why the heck you're wearing a skirt (if winter) or why in the name of all that is holy you would wear that much wool in the heat.

When I started work in Dallas in the 1990s I was one of the last holdouts wearing a suit and tie to work every day. Now you usually see light blazers in the evening, if a jacket is worn at all. I had to quit wearing them when I realized I was getting sweatier than a hairy hog in a forest fire. I'm sure it's different for London, though. The last time I was in London it wasn't a great experience and I'm pretty unlikely to go back, kilted or otherwise.