Took the plunge and went public in my kilt

[hector]

'...All in all it was a very positive experience. Most people though didn't bat an eyelid.'

I am going out kilted rather frequently. In the beginning I went to places where also tourists come and so I could 'hide myself’ and be seen as 'a Scottish tourist'. That was my trick to build confidence. All timidity is gone now and I wear my kilt anywhere.
The more you do it the easier it will become.
In my three years’ experience I was asked several times (and always in a very friendly way) for having a picture of me or with me.
I only got twice a negative comment (once in my native town - a guy asking my wife is she was with 'her sister', and once somewhere in France someone called me 'mademoiselle').
A personal remark (which I know is not always shared) give the kilt the honor it deserves. By this I mean to dress up well when you wear it. For example, this is a picture of me going for a walk this week somewhere at the sea side.


I wish you many happy occasions to enjoy this beautiful garment!


http://s1321.photobucket.com/user/ve...tml?sort=3&o=1

[DWFII]

A personal remark (which I know is not always shared) give the kilt the honor it deserves. By this I mean to dress up well when you wear it. For example, this is a picture of me going for a walk this week somewhere at the sea side.

[kilted firefighter]

Congratulations. It gets easier/more relaxed with practice. I'm fairly new to the kilt as well and I'm frequently surprised by who I receive positive comments from. I've never gone out kilted and not received a compliment from at least one young lady, but also had positive comments from mowhawked young men, and camo clad country boys. Who would have thought?

[ForresterModern]

Popped my kilt cherry by wearing it to a pretty big local highland games when I lived in Phoenix. A Games gathering like that is a fairly safe place to do it because you will NOT feel like you stick out like a sore thumb, unless you put it on backwards or something like that. You are SUPPOSED to see kilted men and women at a highland games, heck they sell them there at the vendors booths most games. So it is much easier to settle into your own comfort wearing mode without feeling too self conscious (just the right amount of first time self consciousness). It also is a good place to get some ideas what other folks look like wearing kilts and which "looks" you like and which you don't desire to emulate. Be carefull about going too "whole hog" if you are wearing a personal clan tartan----go light on all clan logo/motto/badged items like belts, lapel pins, clan family t-shirts, matching tartan ties and such-----most newbies (myself included) generally order all the clan badged stuff like belt buckles, sporrans, kilt pins, sgian dubh, polo shirts, etc... and you start looking like a walking sales mannequin from your family clan scottish store. It can get a little clownish if you are not careful.
My funny story is that I wore my Forrester Modern tank to that first all day event, immediately after parking the car was already surrounded by a handful of other kilties in the parking lot before I even got in the gates. First kilted man my wife and I saw inside the gates was also wearing Forrester Modern, and we struck up a conversation about names and where we were originally from and such trying to see if there was any close family connection---he even had the same variation surname as me---but alas no connection found. I have been to dozens of games since then and, other than at the Stone Mountain games which our "clan" claims as its home games and where they have our "clan" annual meeting each fall, I have never seen another man or woman in Forrester modern tartan kilt since. It really is a pretty unusual tartan.
Welcome to the fold, friend. Kilted life, regardless of how frequently or where you choose to wear it, is good, and fun, and friendly, and a good way to get folks to open up and talk to you (get their pictures taken with you, tell you that you are wearing some accessory incorrectly, call it a skirt, get wolf whistles, have ladies give you looks your own mate may not appreciate, may even get you a free beer or dram or two on a new friend or the house). Yes, kilted life of any sort is good.
The other funny thing about that day is that we had bought an inexpensive infant kilt (velcro closure--also easier to change diapers) and my then 2 week old younger son (also know hereabouts as "The Boy") and I were both kilted for the first time in public together on the same day. Always more fun when you are not doing it alone. He sucked a lot of the attention off of my kilt wearing initiation.

[OC Richard]

Yes well done Terry!

Perhaps kiltwearing in England isn't so different than here in the USA, where there are quite a few of people Scottish ancestry around.

Interesting that the Eastern Europeans seemed to like the kilt best. It's often similar here in California where I often get smiles and thumbs-up from people of African and Mexican descent.

I'm sure it's the same in Britain, the way that here it's common to see Indian people walking down the street in saris etc, and here also common to see Mexican women wearing sarapes, so that ethnic dress doesn't stand out all that much.

But these posts have got me a-thinking about when was the first time I wore a kilt in public. I really can't remember the specific occasion. It would have been in 1975 when I got my first set of pipes. I do remember doing something I wouldn't dream of doing now, and that is put on a kilt and go practice my pipes in the nearby Public Park. My first kilt was sewn by my grandmother from ordinary plaid (non-tartan) wool I bought in a local fabric shop, my second kilt was also sewn by my grandmother but out of actual tartan imported from Scotland.

It would have been 1975 or 1976 when my Father and I attended our first Highland Games, my dad wearing my first kilt, I wearing my second (MacDonald of the Isles Hunting). People kept coming up to my dad and asking him what tartan it was! Of course it wasn't any, but my dad with his typical cheekiness told them "Cook of Kintyre".

[Vikingcrusher]

Keep going man........

[James Hood]

Good on yer, mate!

Kilt on!

Good advice, about wearing the kilt respectfully and smartly.