Why you don't see Scots wearing their kilts often

[GG]

Worry not GG, after all you are not a Scot and I am not a Dane and we are, after all, talking about kilts being worn in Scotland. LOL

I wish you a very happy kilted weekend.

Thanks Jock,

As a matter of fact I have been out kilted. I walked down to the woods just a few hundred meters from our house. Spring has eventually come, sunshine, temperatures on the pleasant side of zero and birds singing. Said hello to a few other fine people being up early and now walking their dogs or just themselves.

Denmark is a wonderful country, as is Scotland. You should go here some day. If you do, send me a message. You could even wear your kilt, should you wish to and with hardly anyone taking notice or thinking it was stupid.

When I after one and a half hour returned home my dear wife had made breakfast for us. Life is good. It certainly is.

[Paul Henry]

Paul,

In my time hear on the forum I have enjoyed your posts and have appreciated the knowledge you have shared, but I must respectfully disagree with you here......

clipped
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More than once have I seen this particular Auld Crabbit say something along the lines of "You can wear the kilt anyway that makes you happy, but that's not how I would do it." That, my friend, seems to be his recurring theme.

Regards,

Brian

I've answered Brian in PM, needless to say I think he is being rather charitable!

[GG]

Personally I really wish that the kilt remained exclusively Highland Scots

I appreciate you honesty, Jock. Of course you would. I know that the kilt means a lot to to you and I fully understand that you feel upset when a foreigner like me and without any, in your eyes, “right” to the kilt tries to tell you what you and other Scotsmen should do with their kilts.

I never wanted to tell you what to do. I never wanted to dictate anyone how to wear the kilt or think or behave. The only thing I tried to say was that the kilt, being that extraordinary garment it is, to my opinion does deserve a more frequent usage and that the kilt per se could benefit from it.

It is my opinion, and please feel free, not to agree. I should never claim I have a monopoly of the “truth”.

Now, it is a fact, that the kilt is worn also by non Scots and accordingly not as a part of your national dress. Feel assured, however, that I have no intention to dishonor the kilt in any way and that I shall do my best to wear it in a proper way. Also I’m convinced; every non Scot on this great forum is seeing it the same way, even if they and I will use it more than you and most other Scotsmen.

[Jock Scot]

GG.

Your point of view is as valid as mine, or anyone elses, so there is absolutely no need to reproach yourself one bit on my behalf.

I make no bones about where I would prefer the kilt to belong, but your Danish born English King, Canute, demonstrated to all that even he could not stem the tide! C'est la vie.

I am very glad that you enjoyed your kilted walk in the woods this morning and I hope you have many more.

[Jaggy thistle]

Jock you wish the kilt to remain in the Highlands fair enough but I would rather see others enjoying the freedom My father was born in Perthshire but I was born in Renfrewshire does that mean that he can wear the kilt and I can not? our family is not alone in moving South or indeed abroad I think we should take our heritage with us

[Dall_Piobaire]

Jock you wish the kilt to remain in the Highlands fair enough but I would rather see others enjoying the freedom My father was born in Perthshire but I was born in Renfrewshire does that mean that he can wear the kilt and I can not? our family is not alone in moving South or indeed abroad I think we should take our heritage with us

Good point, and really right to the point.

All this really goes a long way to illustrate what the kilt has come to be to so many.

Just from the outside of this interesting thread, everyone has a different, valid and varied reason for liking and wearing this ARTICLE OF CLOTHING.

There is a point where it goes past an article of clothing for many, and rightly so just as Tam has poointed out, and what I personally take from Jock's thoughts. Some might feel as though a symbol of a great heritage is being trivialized, annexed by the masses to become nothing more than alternative to trousers.

In a funny way compelling a Scot to do anything a Scot doesn't want to do is almost contradictory to the very thing the Plaide represents.

What import it was/is/wil be given is as varied as the tartan, but rightly or wrongly it has come to symbolize, family, heritage, independence, strength, and pride. So, it developed a spirit of it's own unlike, to my knowledge, any other ordinary and much loved article of clothing. Would it have ever been outlawed had it not.

What is wonderful is that something seemingly so simple can mean so much, and so many different things to so many throughout the world.

[Jock Scot]

Jock you wish the kilt to remain in the Highlands fair enough but I would rather see others enjoying the freedom My father was born in Perthshire but I was born in Renfrewshire does that mean that he can wear the kilt and I can not? our family is not alone in moving South or indeed abroad I think we should take our heritage with us

Tam, what I wish for and what I have got, as in this case, are two very different things and what I wish for is a lost cause for me, I am afraid, but that does not stop me from pointing out that the Scots are more than able to decide when and where they are able/do/wish to wear the kilt without others, perhaps innocently, suggesting otherwise.

[davidlpope]

Personally I really wish that the kilt remained exclusively Highland Scots, but doing the "King Canute" bit is a fruitless exercise!

Tam, what I wish for and what I have got, as in this case, are two very different things and what I wish for is a lost cause for me, I am afraid...

Jock,

Just trying to better understand your point of view here. Is your preference that the kilt be worn only by Highland Scots while they are in the Highlands? As a corollary, how would you best define a Highland Scot? Born, Bred, and Raised? Once a Highland Scot lives outwith the Highlands, does he lose this distinction? What about children who are not raised in the Highlands, but both mother and father are Highlanders?

I ask because I see a bit of a connection between your thinking and my own musings about the American South and what makes one a "Southerner"...

Re: Canute, perhaps try the King Alfred and the cakes bit, instead...

David

[Howard Clark]

I've a young smith friend on Skye who would like to have a work kilt, and wear it in the knife making shop to work in. There is considerable societal resistance to the notion, methinks, from what he did, and did not say when we discussed it.

Societal conventions are powerful things. This group should know that well. Jock is a traditionalist, and I am glad he is here with his perspective on things. Thanks, Jock.

I myself have been more or less a full time kilt wearer for three years now. In Iowa you always get double takes. Sometimes more. My sons and I have taken to enjoying it as a sociological experiment. I wear tartan kilts, and look decent if I am out in public. Whilst working in my shop, the kilt is not always wool tartan, but most of the time it is wool tartan from fall to spring. I find the kilt to be a most practical garment, and Robert Noble 18oz MoD tartan to be even more durable than Carhart canvas under all kinds of adverse conditions.

We all benefit from the various points of view that are here. Now, who'll have a pint with me and celebrate the kilt ?!

[muirkirkca]

I think Jock Scot has responded quite well to this topic as to the situatio in Scotland. In Ontario at least it tends to be at special occasion events - weddings, Burns Dinner, Scottish country dances, Highland games etc. but not necessarily by all attendees and will likely not change quickly.