I agree that anyone can wear what ever. Heck my tank is a Montegomery. Why, because when I walked in to Thomas Gordon and Sons and said," what've you got?" that was the only thing on their hire rack that fit.

However, now that kilting has become a 95% of the time thing, I do want a connection somehow. But, as noted above and in my thread from yesterday, finding a tartan that you have a connection to, and not just one of the universal tartans, almost always costs you much more, takes more time, and as often as not you can't always get the fabric weight you want even when you can find the tartan. For instance, some book (and the tartan authority web site) say I should wear Aberdeen. Well after extensive searching, I can get it, in 13 oz (want 16) and the kilt that I want costs about 50 more that the more common tartans. Can I afford it, yes, but it still tickes me off.

And universal tartans still have no connection for me either. I would no more want to wear Black Watch than I would the USMC tartan since I was a member of neither. The fact that nobody but me cares about a connection to BW doesn't lessen the feeling that I don't belong in that tartan.

The good news is that there are a lot of "New" universal tartans showing up (i.e. the BLANK of Scotland - fill in the blank with your favorite adj.), that are usually available and have no baggage. I think I may be buying the Braveheart tartan for my upcoming 5 yard kilt.

Adam