I have a personal impression of kilt wearing that has been challenged on this forum and that may therefore be peculiar to me.... I travel around with my kilt in the car a fair bit and am perhaps more apt than some to show up kilted at small town public events outside my home area, not always Scottish ones. And, when wearing the kilt such large Canadian events as Rememberance Day ceremonies, Canada Day celebrations, etc, I am most often taken for a possible ceremonial guest or perhaps a piper, but always involving something with official status. One Canadian Legion president actually came up to the kilted me on November 11 and and asked "Are you anybody?" I've even experienced the same thing at Highland Games, even at the large ones like the Glengarry Games in Maxville ON.

Obviously this is no doubt is helped along by my officious exterior , but it did help form a personal conviction that people in general seem to feel the need for some official reason or outside authorization to wear a kilt or to dress in the highland manner; I further have the idea that this is perhaps mostly a Canadian phenomenon. I stress that I'm not talking about Burns Suppers or St Andrews Society events etc, just the ones generally attended by the unkilted public. Let me know and if it's only me I'll seek help!