What is Traditional Highland Dress?

[MacBean]

Being traditionally dressed is as much about knowing what is not appropriate attire, as it is about knowing what is appropriate attire. Unfortunately the "appropriate" line gets blurred by many in North America, and there is usually a weak attempt to justify that blurring on the grounds of distance in time or space from Scotland. The most shallow of all arguments, it seems to me, is that one which goes something like "we're not in Scotland so we can wear what we want." Not only does this line of protest seem to display an ignorance of what are the accepted standards in the wearing of what has become the Scottish mode of national dress, but its hollow arrogance seems to be as largely based on insecurity as much as it is a lack of social understanding.

Perhaps I misunderstood; please correct me (I often do misconstrue)?

Do Americans actually "usually blur the lines between appropriate and inappropriate traditional dress and attire"?

If you have heard something like, "we're not in Scotland so we can wear what we want", does that mean the person in question was trying for traditional attire? I think that would be strange.

Does someone wearing what they want imply that they (and many folk here on this forum) display hollow arrogance, insecurity, and lack of social understanding?

Frankly, I'm shocked and disappointed. I have been quite careful to follow the traditional highland dress esthetic and custom, but why would I want to anymore? If I lose friends over this, well so be it.