A few pics .. Freelanders visit to Wales

**Phil** · 19th July 07, 01:42 AM

Originally Posted by McClef

Well the Wales Tartan Centre has a shop in Swansea as well as Cardiff (and another in Newtown) so the business must be there. They will also have a stall at the Royal Welsh Show next week (yes I will be going and wearing my Welsh cilts).

No reason why one should not be kilted at a funeral, I wore my Isle of Skye to one in Sunderland in January and it was appreciated by the family. The mourning was indicated by the black tie that I wore with it.

It was 1961 that I left Swansea but it is good to hear how Cilt wearing has taken off since then. When I was in Northern Ireland last year I passed a church wedding where most of the men were kilted so it shows how the word is spreading. In my younger days you only saw kilts there in pipe bands. I didn't wear my kilt to the funeral and no-one else did either although I know many in the congregation have and wear kilts. It just doesn't seem to be the tradition here in Scotland. When I married in 1971 most weddings were in top hat and tails and for formal dinners you hired a dinner suit (tuxedo). My father-in-law still wore a top hat to funerals in the 1960's and I am trying to think when kilt-wearing became more popular in Scotland. Probably not until the 1980's did you see many people in kilts here apart from Andy Stewart and Kenneth McKellar on their "couthy" TV programmes. But then in the 60's and 70's formal dress died a death and it became acceptable to wear jeans and t-shirts to works dances etc.. There has since been a reaction to this and people want to look good again. Also Scottish people felt a stronger need to assert their national identity. When I worked for a big American company their first Xmas dance everybody tirned up looking like hobos, t-shirts and the like and I was the only one there kilted. Next year they all went out and hired kilts, some change. Sorry to go on so long but it might interest some to learn how fashions and attitudes change over time.