Share your kilt reaction stories

[MartinMU]

Yesterday I had my first indoor event in my kilt, highland regiment polished and a drummer fly plaid. Several woman approached me and told me that I was looking awesome. There was another guy in a kilt, he was wearing long trousers underneath and a loose middle age shirt an plastic sword, roman gladiator style and black boots. I don't think that this guys would get the same compliments ;-)

[OC Richard]

In Switzerland we don't have piper regiments.

General public cannot differentiate if I have Black Watch regiments buttons or RRS buttons on my tunic. They will not be able to tell the difference between a Black Watch tartan or a Royal Stewart tartan...

It's like that here in the USA also. Since we don't have kilted regiments nobody knows or cares if you're wearing regimental items when kilted.

For me when I'm out kilted playing the pipes despite "the public" not knowing if I'm playing the pipes well or badly, or dressed well or badly, I know. Like most musicians I'm my own harshest critic.

Yes, the tunic is kept neutral. All chevrons, insignias have been removed.

That's probably best.

There's an interesting exception, the longstanding practice in Scotland for the Pipe Majors of civilian bands wearing military-style dress to wear the four chevrons of the office of Pipe Major. Those chevrons are indicating only that the person is functioning as Pipe Major. They're not claiming military rank.

Here's a nice Scottish example of a civilian pipe band wearing military-style Full Dress, avoiding military badges, sporrans, doublets, etc. Still, the Pipe Major wears the chevrons of his office.

No sgian dubh, no dirk either. That's forbidden.

It's pretty much like that here too. It varies by State and venue, and so many venues here have a "zero tolerance policy" regarding weapons of any sort that the easiest path is to leave the Sgian at home.

[geomick]

... It's pretty much like that here too. It varies by State and venue, and so many venues here have a "zero tolerance policy" regarding weapons of any sort that the easiest path is to leave the Sgian at home.

All of the Highland Games I have attended in WI and IL had no problems with my Flett Forge Dirk, but some wanted to search my sporran to make sure I wasn't smuggling in alcohol.

[Jock Scot]

Personally, I would prefer if ALL CIVILIAN pipe bands and civilian musicians did not use military attire and style ---including buttons------ at all, anywhere in the world------including Scotland. I would also prefer if military pipe bands from outwith the Commonwealth would cease doing so too.

I realise that many will think that I am talking heresy here, but........... We were asked and I have answered with a very long held and honest belief..

[MartinMU]

For me when I'm out kilted playing the pipes despite "the public" not knowing if I'm playing the pipes well or badly, or dressed well or badly, I know. Like most musicians .

While keeping the military style for me, the good thing about the regiment tunic, it has easy swapable buttons. This means i can switch within less than 5 minutes from 42nd black watch to Royal Highland fusiliers. Wha i would never do is mix the distictive buttons, collar dogs, buttons and tartans. If I start with black watch, all will be black watch. I will be my own critic too.

[jsrnephdoc]

It's like that here in the USA also. Since we don't have kilted regiments nobody knows or cares if you're wearing regimental items when kilted.

and

It's pretty much like that here too. It varies by State and venue, and so many venues here have a "zero tolerance policy" regarding weapons of any sort that the easiest path is to leave the Sgian at home.

For me, the fundamental question. when wearing clothing or accessories that obviously are uncommon or can be taken as part of a costume, is whether doing so is respectful, or mocking, or flaunting common decency.

I don't wear a kilt when mowing the lawn. There's no need to, and of course there's very little real grass in Las Vegas anyway.

More decades ago than I care to remember, in my first real post-education JOB as a physician, I was "making rounds" at my hospital. An elevator door opened for me, and a 20-ish custodial employee emerged wearing the most common "Amurican" uniform—a Tee Shirt. However, this one was emblazoned with a logo that read "I'm so horny, not even the crack of dawn is safe."

Immediately I diverted from the elevator to the hospital administrator's office and reported the flaunting of common sense. It was taken care of.

It's clear from the traffic on this forum that for some in Scotland, and for a few members of the Scottish diaspora, kilts are INDEED common daily wear, and that's wonderful. But, for most of us, it IS a costume in one sense or another. And, that's recognized at one of the virtual CATHEDRALS of military piping—the Edinburgh Royal Military Tattoo. When I attended in 2023, the very TITLE of the year's show was "Stories."

So, most of my kilts are in variants of my family tartan, but each of them tells a story (of respect for my family, or of still-meager knowledge of how and why the kilt has evolved), but when one is worn, it's worn with respect, and frankly to "look good" while doing so.

As for the weapons, I do tuck a REAL Sgian Dubh into my hose top occasionally. That's possible because here in "Amurica," reliance on shared public transit is almost non-existent, so it's feasible to arrive at and attend a private gathering without threatening or bothering anyone. But, whenever I kilt for a public event, I substitute the immensely inexpensive little plastic ball point pen shown in my <xmarks> Avatar that shares NOTHING with a REAL Sgian Dubh except size and shape, but CAN be a story-promoting source of curiosity satisfaction for anyone who notices, because it was acquired from a storied paleontology museum's souvenir shop, where, LONG before human weapons or even humans themselves roamed, T Rex's DID, and where until very recently, I lived.

And that foundation of my kiltlng practice is also why I already know what kilts I'll acquire next: one in the "Nursing Tartan," designed FOR, and perhaps even BY nursing professionals in the Scottish NHS, if ever it gets woven again and Barb Tewksbury can acquire some cloth for my wife, who in retirement is just SO proud of her career as a kind and caring American Registered Nurse, and the other in Robertson Red "white line" for me, because, simply IT tells a tiny story of the evolution of tartan, and, it doesn't just remind me too much of a stoplight.

[OC Richard]

I would prefer if ALL CIVILIAN pipe bands did not use military attire and style...

Fair enough, but civilian pipe bands have been doing it in Scotland ever since the first civilian pipe bands were formed 150 years ago. (For sure wrong things can be done for long periods of time.)

Pipe bands were invented in the army, and more recently than many people think: they weren't authorised until 1854.

(There's that old epic film Waterloo where it ludicrously shows a pipe band.)

When civilians started organising pipe bands they were modelled in form and dress on the only thing there was model on, the military bands.

Eventually a new stream of Highland Dress emerged, civilian military-style pipe band dress. It was clearly civilian, the badges being a generic thistle or lion, the tartan being civilian. No-one in Scotland could mistake one of these bands for military.

A good Scottish Highlands & Islands example is the Isle Of Skye Pipe Band. Their doublets aren't a style worn by any regiment, nor are their tartans (they wear two different tartans, one for kilts, the other for plaids).



But there have always been civilian bands which have blurred the line, wearing military tartans and more or less following the dress of a specific regiment.

What looks particularly awful to me is bands that mix items from various regiments willy-nilly.

[Jock Scot]

Fair enough, but civilian pipe bands have been doing it in Scotland ever since the first civilian pipe bands were formed 150 years ago. (For sure wrong things can be done for long periods of time.)

Pipe bands were invented in the army, and more recently that many people think: they weren't authorised until 1854.

(There's that old epic film Waterloo where it ludicrously shows a pipe band.)

When civilians started organising pipe bands they were modelled in form and dress on the only thing there was model on, the military bands.

Eventually a new stream of Highland Dress emerged, civilian military-style pipe band dress. It was clearly civilian, the badges being a generic thistle or lion, the tartan being civilian. No-one in Scotland could mistake one of these bands for military.

A good Scottish Highlands & Islands example is the Isle Of Skye Pipe Band. Their doublets aren't a style worn by any regiment, nor are their tartans (they wear two different tartans, one for kilts, the other for plaids).



But there have always been civilian bands which have blurred the line, wearing military tartans and more or less following the dress of a specific regiment.

What looks particularly awful to me is bands that mix items from various regiments willy-nilly.

Ttraditionally cut tweed jackets would suit my idea for what civilian pipe bands might wear.

[jsrnephdoc]

What looks particularly awful to me is bands that mix items from various regiments willy-nilly.

Are you OK with civilian bands that mix tartans?

I remember my college years. I moved into my freshman dorm (a REALLY spartan place) and discovered pretty quickly that my junior year resident advisor played the pipes when I heard what I took as an awful, wrong notes rendition of Scotland the Brave coming from HIS room. I had no idea about two "additional" perversities of the pipes, namely the holes not spaced the same as on the "real deal" chanter, or that the practice chanter didn't even play the same NOTES as the real deal.

But of course, neither of those is much of an obstacle to REAL musicians (witness Rachmaninov crossing the Atlantic to premier his 3rd piano concerto in NYC but still learning the fingerings for the music he had in his head using a dummy wooden keyboard that made no sound whatsoever other than clicks!

I learned quickly (actually, already knew from our matriculation ceremony in the college's spectacular "collegiate gothic" chapel) that the college had a pipe band, and once I knew there was a guy down the hall from me whose very job included shepherding the newbies, I was hooked. When HE learned that he could add a bit of contrasting color to the band (I don't even remember what the band's official tartan was, but I know we had express permission from the Chieftain to wear it) if I "borrowed" my sister's kilt, and pretty soon I could butcher Scotland the Brave and the Rowan Tree while he was making real music just outside the quad standing alone on a huge boulder overlooking apartments below (of COURSE he couldn't practice the real pipes indoors). I learned one more march whose name I can't remember, stuffed wine corks into the drones to keep the bag inflated, and pretended to know what I was doing for the next four years.

I remembered the Rowan Tree and SOME of Scotland the Brave and periodically would pull my practice chanter from a bedside table all the way to 2017, when everything that could burn in my Santa Rosa home did just that. Last year I actually bought a new practice chanter, but at 78 the dream of adding something to a real band is pretty much gone.

Anyway, that college band is still a fond memory, and the Pipe Major was happy to have some contrasting color—my sister's Robertson Red dress tartan— into the ranks of uniform blue/green tartan whose name, might have been "something" of Atholl into its ranks, even though I played horribly.

[OC Richard]

Traditionally cut tweed jackets would suit my idea for what civilian pipe bands might wear.

One would think!

However up till the 1970s the vast majority of civilian pipe bands either did the quasi-military look, or full civilian Evening Dress complete with tartan hose and buckled brogues.

There were a few bands who did civilian Day Dress with tweed jackets, a tiny minority.

Of course this all changed beginning in the 1970s when a new look, the thick handknit "natural" hose + ghillies + black Argylls + Glengarries thing blew into town. Suddenly both of the old pipe band looks were completely out of style for serious competition bands.