the unseemly question

[Semiomniscient]

I always wear boxers. I've read at least one post that a properly worn kilt will leave little room to show anything, but I'm a Scottish Country Dancer and I have had many moments where my kilt has come up--I learned this when a nice lady I knew came up to me and said, "red boxers?" after I finished a dance demo. I also grew up wearing undies as I've been wearing a kilt since I was an infant and I moved from diapers to mickey mouse undies to boxers whilst wearing a kilt. (Although I would recommend black or dark boxers, the rest of you non-regimental types should under no circumstances wear Mickey Mouse undies--but then again, I don't believe any man has the right to tell another what he should wear under his kilt: that is between him and his wife and a doublewidth of tartan). ;-)

[Woodsheal]

The highlander would never go into battle wearing the kilt. despite what some people think, the kilt was too constrictive to fight in. Kiltless highlanders sounds like the ultimate secret for success in warfare. Imagine a couple of hundred or more Scotsmen (say a couple if thousand) coming after you with nothing on and carrying weapons.

Actually, this was only true of two or three documented instances when the battles took place on very hot summer days. At Culloden, with cold nasty weather including freezing rain and sleet, the clansmen certainly kept their warm plaids (i.e. "great kilts") firmly belted on...!

[Avonlea22]

Depends on my mood.

Try to go regimental as much as possible, however.

[McMurdo]

I have a question for you sir, if it is an "unseemly question" then why pose it? Do what you will with your underthings, and give others the same opportunity to do what they will.

[DWFII]

I have a question for you sir, if it is an "unseemly question" then why pose it? Do what you will with your underthings, and give others the same opportunity to do what they will.

Well, my first response is to ask you, as moderator, a question...am I forcing anyone to respond? I used the term "unseemly" because there does seem to be a hesitancy to speak of such matters among some here. Yet where better than on a forum devoted to kilt wearing? Heck, there have been pamphlets written about this subject. Some want to tiptoe around it. Fine. Others have taken the question in the spirit that it was asked...simply as a matter of custom. What is customary?

I don't care what others wear under their kilts, I was looking for rationales for choosing one mode or the other. Rocky at Freedom kilts made a cogent argument to not go regimental. Others have made countering points.

And to respond more directly to your point, I, personally, have made no suggestions either way.

I detect little if any snickering, and virtually no profanity nor even euphemism--most are treating the question seriously. That's certainly what I was hoping for.

Amongst all this, especially with the references to long undershirts, I begin to wonder whether it's just some sort of eccentricity with little historical provenance.

[bchunter]

I kind of like Mowgli's notion of a boxer-slip under the kilt to protect the kilt from soiling. All the advantages of regimental, and a protected kilt as well. Not all of my shirts are long enough to do double duty and this may solve the question.

[McMurdo]

Fair enough, the answer for me is not in the poll. Thanks for the further explanation

[ccga3359]

...Rocky at Freedom kilts...

One correction. Rocky is of USAKilt fame, Steve Ashton is proprietor of Freedom Kilts. In Steve's modesty I think he failed to mention his Kilt Shirt line, designed and cut for among other things (staying tucked in, added level of modesty) but also to prevent the inevitable soiling of one's kilt. Here's a review of one such beast.

For what it's worth I feel this is a appropriate question for a kilt forum. People are acting with required decorum.

[EBlackall]

A co-worker asked yesterday, and I replied "It depends". He asked depends on what? I replied without thinking about what I was saying "Just depends". He broke up laughing.

Took a moment to register "depends".

Sheesh! Should'a seen that one coming.

[DWFII]

Fair enough, the answer for me is not in the poll. Thanks for the further explanation

Nor for me.

I am an old man (compared to some here) and just getting into wearing a kilt after a lifetime of jeans and trousers. Heck, I was near onto sixty years old before I wore my first pair of shorts. To be perfectly honest, I wanted...maybe needed...to hear what Steve (or someone like him...thanks for the correction, Grant) had to say--the sense of it. And, with the added historical background, I am less concerned with violating a hallowed tradition that may or may not be all that "hallowed" to begin with...or even a real "tradition," if it comes to that.