A problem that I think we must face is what we are talking about?

For on the one hand there are some talking about the traditional kilt, with its strong highland connection: yet on the other we are linking it with such garments as the Ultilikilt, where to be blunt the only real connection is that they are both male skirts.

Now let me be quite clear, for many good reasons such as comfort and practicality I support the idea of men wearing such garments, whatever they might be called. However I'm entirely opposed to such things as cross dressing, that is a man or woman false flagging to appear as the gender which is not theirs. Though if a man chooses to wear a skirt or dress as a man, or a woman trousers as a woman: that is fine by me, their rightful choice.

However this brings me back to what I see as a problem, where we are trying to back two horses in different races: one race is the support of and promotion of the traditional kilt-that is the wear of the highlander, though it has attained wider acceptance as Scottish male attire.

The other race is in respect of such garments as the Utilikilt, which really has no connection with Scotland, a point that I think was made by its creator. Here to my eyes at least, attempts to give such garments credence by importing some sort of Scottish connection, maybe adding a sporran lor wearing a skean dhu, are somewhat ludicrous.

Further they diminish both efforts to support the traditional kilt, and the efforts to develop such garments themselves as sensible male attire.

So I would suggest as mentioned in an earlier post by another, that we need to clarify our own position: and see the two types of garment as being entirely different in origin, and the rationale for wearing them. Certainly I know that if I turned up at a clan event wearing a Utilikilt and tried to claim that it had some connection to such a highland occasion, I'd be laughed out of town. [Though a visitor from say America making a similar mistake, would hopefully be treated in a more mannerly fashion-well to their face at least.]

Having made that point-in respect of the growth of popularity of the kilt: recently I saw one of the cheaper kilt variants in a shop window in Bath. Secondly, I at present live in North London: and a men's wear shop which would often have a kilt in the window, has all of a sudden turned into the centre for highland dress: which suggests that there is a developing market for such garments in the area.

To move a step further, the media almost daily shows pictures of kilted men, highland wear shops and makers are proliferating. Wales and Cornwall, locations to which the kilt was to recently entirely alien are now sprouting their own home grown wearers. I myself no longer attract any attention when wearing my kilt. All suggestive of a bubble building up which would only take some slight stimulus to explode upon the scene.

I hope I've not trampled on too many toes.

James