http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...siness/General

SPEAKING FROM EXPERIENCE
Dress decision throws caution, and knees, to the wind
Wearing a kilt to the office inspires questions, teasing -- and admiration
 By OLIVER MOORE Wednesday, September 28, 2005 Page C5

In pursuit of comfort, I've enthusiastically adopted clothing from a whole host of foreign cultures.

Although rarely worn outside the privacy of my home, I swear by the comfort of a sarong, a kilt or a baggy tunic.

But one windy day, I took the plunge and headed to work in my kilt.

With plans to go out in the evening, I thought it absurd to bring a kilt to work, change into it at the end of the day and then try to sneak out without anyone seeing me.

At first it occurred to me that perhaps discretion is actually the better part of timidity. Then I thought, discretion be damned.

I don't have a drop of Scottish blood that I know of; even worse, I'm half-English.

And the garment was plain black instead of the regulation tartan. I matched it with a sharp black shirt and a pair of eight-hole Doc Marten's. Smart-looking, but not the real thing.

My position then as a reporter in The Globe and Mail's on-line news department took me to work before most others at The Globe were in.

I'd made it almost as far as my desk before anyone noticed my attire.

But by the time the morning news meeting rolled around, it was open season, with a flurry of questions about the breeze, my heritage and my sanity.

"Did you lose a bet?" my boss asked as I sat down.

I fended off the comments as best as I could, giving nearly as well as I got, and tried to remember to keep my knees together.

I hadn't been entirely sure of what reaction to expect from my colleagues.

Possible downsides abounded.

Toronto is pretty multicultural and it sometimes seems that anything goes.

But The Globe can be a pretty conservative place.

And without the heritage to back me up, I was really wearing what amounted to a pleated black skirt.

It was a gamble, but my colleagues rose to the occasion.

All over the building, I attracted positive comments and questions from people I'd never spoken to before.

They wanted to know where I'd bought the thing, whether I'd managed to wear it while riding my bike to work and the ever-popular question about whether I was wearing it authentically, you know, sans anything underneath.

Some questions must not be answered: HR is watching.

The garment had become a point of conversation, an accidental schmoozing tool.

By afternoon, I heard that news had reached as far as the publisher, Phillip Crawley.

Chatting with him later, I found that he'd taken my dress decision in stride, saying that he didn't think a kilt is "outlandish for people to wear to work. I think there's a recognition that you can be smart and casual."

A kilt wouldn't work in a very formal environment, I admit, and there are probably people who would get upset about cultural appropriation.

But even with bankers loosening the rules, a person can get away with a lot.

Mr. Crawley also noted that he'd been exposed to much more terrifying sights. In the Far East, he'd seen battered, scarred and hairy-legged Fijian rugby players in a skirt-like form of traditional dress -- a much more disturbing sight than my bare knees, he said.

Oliver Moore is now a reporter for The Globe's Toronto section.