Wearing A Kilt On Halloween

[Father Bill]

This is touchy because of the love invested in the kilt and in the Highlands themselves, but various communities also have various interpretation of Hallowe'en. Certainly in our part of the world, a lot of the children dress as someone they admire, so in that context it might work, but I'd be very, very cautious about it. If it's a costume, it's being degraded as such. If it's just clothing, then you haven't really dressed for Hallowe'en, now have you?

[revdpatience]

Now, if you were to go as a Scottish *vampire* that’d be entirely different:

“Och, I want tae bite yer neck, ye ken? I want tae drink yer bluid!”

Or perhaps not ... 😁

[Liam]

I have worn a great kilt as a costume on Halloween. As I regularly wear a modern kilt, I don’t consider it a “costume”.

[Curtis Bias]

I think there are many terrible costumes that people wear at Halloween that involve cultural appropriation. For example: I am Cherokee/Choctaw/and Scottish. It burns me up to see someone wearing a nylon, generic, Native-American costume with brightly colored feathered headdress. I like it more when they do some research or put together an authentic and respectful variation. Even worse is the fact that most people stereotype the indigenous peoples of North America as leather clad, feathered headdress wearing people that all look like people from plains culture (Lakota, Kiowa, Cheyenne, and Ctow) in the 1800s. I believe the intent of the wearer is important. I also know that it can be difficult to judge another's intent.

I don't mind a kilt as a Halloween costume. I do mind someone portraying a stereotype that is derogatory while wearing a kilt. It's more about the wearers intent and more importantly, their behavior.

[Liam]

[FossilHunter]

Are you wearing a costume of Rob Roy or Bonnie Prince Charlie? If yes I don’t see why wearing a kilt would be a problem. The kilt wouldn’t be a costume in and of itself, just a component of a costume.

If you are asking if it would be a good idea to just wear a kilt and T-shirt as a costume then maybe that would be a bad idea as I don’t know what that would be a costume of.

[tokareva]

I would be very hesitant to wear a real kilt that I own on Halloween. I try hard to make sure that I don't appear to be wearing a costume when kilted already. If I felt it necessary to wear the kilt as a costume I would probably spring for the $30- $50 or so and buy a costume. But that's just me, personally I think Halloween is a little silly anyhow, so I'm not really qualified to answer the question.


I do like this one however.

[PatrickHughes123]

That is a definite no no. It's fine to wear a kilt to be cultural or as something you wear to an event, being an alternative for a suit. But never on Halloween. The kilt is not a costume, it is something that has evolved and changed over the course of centuries and that is exactly what makes it a beautiful thing to wear. To wear it on Halloween is degrading, so is wearing it to a costume party.

I once wore mine to a Halloween party and I regret it ever since.

[Taskr]

I tend to agree with the sentiment that if Halloween is an excuse to wear the kilt for the first time, perhaps you might consider some other occasion where your dashing self in a kilt will be better appreciated.

I fall back to the Halloween of my youth. If its not a ghoul, goblin, ghost, witch or other horrid or scary creature, then its simply a costume day.

[Fedgunner]

I did wear a kilt as part of a Halloween costume.
I went as a pimp from Glasgow, complete with a Scottish pound note in my hat band, a heavily jeweled pound sign necklace and an inflatable sheep under my arm.