Advice needed!

[Nighthawk]

Tell him you are so sorry to see that the transporter beam glitch is still getting body parts backward.

No more beaming!! I'll walk!!

So- onto the OP... I have struggled with something like this in the past. I saw a guy wearing flashes with sandles and no socks- just garters wrapped around his legs! He thought that because his kilt came with them, that he was supposed to wear them. Just be polite and tactful!

I had this come up today at the renfaire, I saw a fellow in a kilt with the basting stitches still in. As I appoached him I saw he had it on 'sideways' as well, with the right hand buckles in front.

So I greeted him and pointed out the stiches and buckles etc, and he said "Thanks man, I didn't know", to which I replied "no worries, glad to help" and moved on. I saw him a couple hours later, and it looked like he had the stitches out, but still had it on side ways.

I always tell people about the stitches if I see them! I had a friend tear a hole in his new kilt once because he didn't take the stitches out.

[Jerry]

Perhaps you should tell him that he has his shoes on backwards because they are pointing to the back of his kilt.

[DireStraitsFan]

As per usual, a great host of advice from a great host of people. Thank you for all of the advice.

Sadly, I only ever saw the gentleman again from a distance, so I never got the opportunity to try any of your ideas out. I wish I had just said something to him earlier, but I just didn't want to come off like a know it all. It really was coming from a place of familiarity and concern. I remember (with embarrassment) wearing a terribly made kilt that I got at TRF to our local Celtic festival several years ago. No hose, no sporran. Just a terribly made, light weight, plaid (I don't think it's an actual tartan) poly kilt surrounded by all of these really well made, Scottish kilts. When I think back to that day, I picture what others probably saw: a guy in a plaid skirt. And I cringe. But, you live and you learn. I sought this site out because I wanted to represent my heritage in the most accurate way possible. But I have absolutely no desire to lord it over anyone else. I just felt really bad for the guy.

And the worst part is is that, except for that one flaw, he was a handsome, impeccably dressed older gentleman. Everything matched nicely. His sporran was pretty good, and worn at an appropriate height. And his calf-high, lace up moccasins looked great with the outfit. It seemed so odd for someone who obviously takes a care in how they appear in public to make such a mistake.

Hopefully, one way or another, he'll figure it out. Irving isn't far from Waxahachie. Perhaps he'll attend a fair, and some kind kilter will set him on the true and right path.

God bless you all.

[DireStraitsFan]

I had this come up today at the renfaire, I saw a fellow in a kilt with the basting stitches still in. As I appoached him I saw he had it on 'sideways' as well, with the right hand buckles in front.

So I greeted him and pointed out the stiches and buckles etc, and he said "Thanks man, I didn't know", to which I replied "no worries, glad to help" and moved on. I saw him a couple hours later, and it looked like he had the stitches out, but still had it on side ways.

I know what you mean, Zardoz. I saw a photographer walking around Central Park this past St. Pat's day in an Irish National with the basting stitches still in. And in similar fashion, the guy was very well put together with nice white dress shirt and tan waistcoat, sporran, and hose. But with basting stitches in. I didn't stress over it too much. My son and I had a hard enough time that day with all of the off island, underage jack****. I'll NEVER, EVER wear a kilt in NYC on St. Patrick's Day again. The good experiences were heavily outweighed by the bad.

[Mickey]

My dad recently received a kilt, courtesy CDNSushi, and the first thing he did was put it on backwards. He's a retired cop. His BIL (my uncle) is a retired firefighter. His neighbor is a piper, who piped at his retirement ceremony. The man has seen a lot of kilts in his time. He just never paid very close attention to how it is worn.

I think a large part of this is that in formal settings (which is how the average person sees people in kilts), the eye is not drawn to the kilt but to everything else or the entire package as a whole, which, lets face it, can be a bit overwhelming. A full dress piper, with pipes, is a very different animal (and a more commonly held vision) than a guy like me going to dinner in a kilt and polo shirt.

Anyway, it is never bad form to correct something embarrassing to someone. Even if it makes you feel like a "know it all" at the moment, sleep well that night knowing that they will thank you at the end of the day. Telling someone that they are wearing their clothes backwards or inside out, be it kilt, shirt, or trousers, is a lot different than informing someone that pleated slacks went out of fashion last year.

[Bob C]

I had this come up today at the renfaire, I saw a fellow in a kilt with the basting stitches still in. As I appoached him I saw he had it on 'sideways' as well, with the right hand buckles in front.

So I greeted him and pointed out the stiches and buckles etc, and he said "Thanks man, I didn't know", to which I replied "no worries, glad to help" and moved on. I saw him a couple hours later, and it looked like he had the stitches out, but still had it on side ways.

I had almost exactly the same thing at a festival. He had it it the right way around, but with the basting stitches still in. I quietly told him his kilt looked great, but that he should take out the basting stitches and free up the pleats. I showed him my pleats and he thanked me. Saw him the following year and he had corrected the situation.

I'd skip the jokes and get to the point. Doing it with a smile is best.

[Silent Raven]

One option without actually having to say anything and possibly embarrass the poor lad, is to wear your kilt and make sure he sees you.

Chances are he'll see you and think "is he backwards, or am I?" With that he'll likely hit 'kilt' in google and get a thousand right-way-around pictures, and he can quietly excuse himself to the mens and turn it around.

not every one who wears a kilt backwards next to some one who is wearing a kilt the correct way around either realizes or cares. a friend of mine from college wore a backwards kilt to graduation and got his picture taken with the piper, and still proceeded to wear it wrong the entire ceremony, had i been there i wouldve told him for sure.

[ForresterModern]

For god sakes tell the poor guy, in some simple yet inoffensive as possible way. I say this as the "victim" of two particularly embarrassing events many years ago that met with "southern" hospitality rather than frank and prompt correction.

My first week out of training in my first real job as a physician I was called away from my work desk/dictation station to do several consecutive procedures that took several hours of my time. I returned to my workstation to find a sticky note stuck to my dictaphone with the following anonymously written on it by one of my new but caring coworkers:
" you have a large booger in your left nostril" and timed only a few minutes after I had gotten up from my seat several hours earlier, and several face to booger patient encounters in between the writing of the note and my finding it. Quick trip to the bathroom showed a sizable now dried and crusty greenie still strongly and quite visibly ensnared in the hairs of my left nostril, exactly as described. I had a meeting with all the coworkers that afternoon and explained to them that no matter how embarrassing it might be to me to have been told face to face there was said booger in place, it was made manifold worse embarrassment by knowing that I had instead walked around with it for several more hours before finding out about it, and that in the future I would appreciate a private but prompt and direct notification. God love Southern Hospitality because barely 1 month later a virtually identical situation arose, this time with my fly open for several hours, again discovered only by an anonymous note on a greatly delayed basis. From then on it bacame a bit of a joking ritual to have one of the techs assigned to "monitor" my grooming actively upon my arrival at work each morning and to perform a full muster inspection prior to engaging my first patients of the day. Needless to say this endeared me to my coworkers forever and immortalized the use of sticky notes for all sorts of pokes of fun and embarrasment. Cannot count the number of times I recieved a "smiley face" on a sticky note with the comment "looking good today" thereafter.

Yes please tell the poor chap and minimize his embarrassment as soon as possible. For all we know he may wear it out that way again one or more times in the future until someone has the heart and gumption to tell him, or he fortuitously finds out on his own.

[biblemonkey]

Politeness and coutesy is always appreciated. Wearing your kilt while you tell him might help, also. Star Wars, eh? I love meeting fellow geeks! My wife has suggested "Lando" as a name if we ever have a boy. Have fun.

[Mark Stephenson]

FM hit the nail on the head: people WANT to know. I had two experiences. The first was told to me by my Commanding Officer when I was a brand new 2nd Lt. He recounted that when he was a 2nd Lt, he was in a briefing given by a General. The General’s fly was down, and the General was standing in front of a large group giving the briefing.. My Commander raised his hand and the General called upon him. He politely told the General, “Excuse me Sir, but your fly is open”. The room fell quiet. The General turned around, zipped up and then asked how many had noticed t his fly was down. Most of the attendees acknowledged they had noticed it. The General proceeded to praise the 2nd Lt for having the moxie to tell him and prevent further embarrassment.

From my own experience, I went to dinner with a friend. We were both kilted, and were the only ones kilted in the restaurant. After dinner as we were headed back to the car, he asked me if the pleats went to the back of the kilt, and I told them they did. He had his kilt on backwards. As my eyes were injured during my military service, I did not have enough residual vision to see that his kilt was on backwards – but, my friend would have wanted me to have told him. So, be polite, but for heaven’s sake, tell people because they will WANT to know.