What is Traditional Highland Dress?

[Lyle1]

That's absolutely true -- but when In Scotland the kilt is worn without parody.

Two things here, where you are off base. (1) I only critique someone if asked for an opinion and then I inevitably try, to the best of my ability, to justify those opinions. (2) I have never ridiculed anyone on this forum, and it is wrong for you to suggest that I have. Well, when it come to Traditional Highland attire there are "rules"; you may choose to disregard them, or flaunt them. But the "rules" do exist. I think they are better described as accepted, or expected, standards of dress, but their effect is the same.

What I fail to understand is why you think a thread about traditional Highland dress, in a forum quite clearly about traditional Highland attire, is the place to argue for wearing something other than traditional Highland dress.

If, in Scotland, the kilt is worn without parody, please explain the very negative, earlier comments in this discussion in response to pictures of young Scottish men wearing kilts in a very casual manner. Those comments suggested that the young men were guilty of great offenses to the kilt.

I did not say that you directly ridiculed specific person. You do seem to know a lot about clothing, and manners. However, you are often very dismissive of and affect a condescending air towards anyone who does not share your view of how a gentlemen, or at least what you perceive a gentlemen to be, and how he dresses and acts.

What I do not understand is many posters think that a thread about Traditional Highland dress is the place to criticize anyone who chooses to forgo the trappings that constitute Traditional Highland dress when they wear a kilt, as in the manner of the Scottish youth pictured and ridiculed earlier in this thread.

I do not often read The Historical Highland Attire thread, but I do not recall that the posters to that thread criticize or ridicule wearers of the kilt who do not aspire to historical accuracy when wearing the kilt in a non-reenactment venue. There have been times in that forum when remarks were made about some item of apparel that was not historically accurate for the period that the wearer was attempting to portray, but that criticism would seem to be justified, in the context in which the item was worn and the wearer's intent to be historically accurate. However, the critical remarks were offered politely and did not contain references to any person's character.

I would suggest that perhaps this forum could confine its sartorial criticism of kilted men to those men who are aspiring to the Highland Dress esthetic. There is no need, and indeed, a true gentleman would find it unseemly, to say that someone looks "stupid" (a quote about a kilted Scottish youth from this thread) because they are not dress to what ever standards this forum finds appropriate.

In plainer lanugage, dress the way you want, and talk as much as you want about what is really appropriate Highland Dress, but stop making demeaning remarks about people who do not even pretend to wear the kilt in the Highland manner. Insulting remarks do not add to the discussion of Highland dress in a positive manner. Extend the same level of politeness and common courtesy to others as you would expect to be extended to those who seek some level of "accuracy" of Highland dress.

Remember, your opinion about the proper way to wear a kilt is only binding on the way the YOU wear a kilt. If you don't like the way another person wears or accessorizes a kilt, don't copy the example, and suffer in silence.