Wearing the kilt is no big deal for me

[Raphael]

I have been wearing various style of kilts in the last few years and it had become a non-event for me. Whether it is a tartan or a contemporary cargo pocket kilt, it still hangs alongside with my trousers, jeans, and shorts. I don't really feel that my kilts are any more special than other bottoms.

I know that I am not the first Asian person who have worn a kilt. I know there are a few Asian brothers in Vancouver who wear them. I am just one the many. I don't try to make a big deal in my community about my clothing choice. I wear what I want. I am comfortable in my suit as I am in my kilt. I don't believe clothes make me. I believe that my attitude makes me.

I don't wear the kilt to show off the world that I am braver than other men, because I know I am not. I still don't have the guts to wear pink or leather pants. I know that I would not wear a wife beater as outter wear as well.

In the world of fashion, we are going to make the choices that we want. As individual, I don't see a point to push my fashion sence to other people. Some people are not going to like what I have to represent. I am okay with that. I don't want to convert anyone that doesn't want to be convert. I like to walk my own paths.

Call me crazy, but I once worn my kilts for 2 weeks straight and I was dying to put on a pair of shorts. It is because my life is about variety. I cannot just wear one thing all the time.

I know there are more than a few members who do not think wearing the kilt is a big deal or have the burning desire to wear the kilt all the time. For instant, we had a 'kilted greet and meet' last summer and one guy showed up wearing his shorts. He didn't see the point of changing out his shorts for a kilt, because he was wearing his short the whole day. We also had out of town guests who were in their kilts, but he wasn't going to wear his kilt to fit in. It was a case of lets meet the person, and not the person's clothes.

Kilts are just the extension of our heritage and/or personality. No more. No less.

[GMan]

Well if you are crazy, so am I.

Kilts are an extention of who I am in all my manifestations!

[bubba]

My view is kilts are clothing. Yeah, I wear kilts every day but it's just getting dressed. Why kilts? They're what I'm most comfortable wearing, no more, no less. I'm not trying to "convert" anyone. It isn't a cause or a crusade, it's just getting dressed.

[pbpersson]

I know that I am not the first Asian person who have worn a kilt.

Call me crazy, but I once worn my kilts for 2 weeks straight and I was dying to put on a pair of shorts. It is because my life is about variety.

I still think there's something a little amusing about an Asian person wearing a kilt. Do they still ask you if you are of Irish/Scottish heritage? People always ask me and when I say I am Swedish their faces just go totally blank.

On the subject of variety, I totally agree. I have been forced to wear pants/shorts for 50 years and now I want to wear kilts and be comfortable for the next 50 years in order to achieve that variety of which you speak.

HOWEVER.....what would happen if the day arrived when at work and at church and at social events everyone always expected me to be kilted full time and complained when I was not? Would I then feel I was "free" to wear kilts or would I feel I was being forced into it? :confused:

It has been my experience in life that people wish for what they don't have and ask for what they don't have and once they get to where they thought they wanted to be they discover it is NOT the paradise it appeared to be from a distance.

I want to be kilted during every waking moment of my life. At the age of fifty I still have not quite learned that I need to be very careful what I ask for.

[NewKilt]

I still think there's something a little amusing about an Asian person wearing a kilt. Do they still ask you if you are of Irish/Scottish heritage? People always ask me and when I say I am Swedish their faces just go totally blank.

Myself, I don't find anything amusing about the fact that Raphael is Asian and he wears a kilt when he feels like it. It's simply part of his wardwrobe. We also have African-American members of XMarks that wear traditional Scottish Kilts. Personally, I think the kilt has reached a point wear it transcends race and national boundaries, but will always have it roots in Scotland.

Back to the subject of the thread. I'm still passionate about kilts. I hope I never completely loose that passion. That said, I don't push kilt wearing on anyone, and certainly respect Raphael's feelings as well as others that it is just one of many bottom garments in their wardwrobe. I think we all have somewhat different personal feelings about our kilts - nothing wrong with that.

Darrell

[pbpersson]

Myself, I don't find anything amusing about the fact that Raphael is Asian and he wears a kilt when he feels like it. It's simply part of his wardwrobe.

What I meant was that narrow-minded people who think that only Scottsmen can wear kilts will have an immediate reality check and might learn something. That is was what I found amusing.

As I mentioned, when I tell people that I am Swedish they cannot understand why I am wearing the kilt.

I always think it is nice when narrow-minded people are taught what reality is. Now I only hope they have enough intelligence to learn. :confused:

[Raphael]

I still want to have that special feeling when I wear the kilt and that's why I have elected not to wear it for work. I want to wear it to honour the land and her people.

I have been fascinated with Scotland for a very long time, and wearing the kilt is a gateway for me to learn about the culture and the people. I am glad that it happened and it had opened my eyes to a new world and new adventures. Scotland is still a land I have yet to visit, and I intend to make it there soon.

I am still passionate about it, and It had been a life long fascination. I intend to learn more about it, and I would like to hand sew on in the future.

[Blu (Ontario)]

I have been wearing various style of kilts in the last few years and it had become a non-event for me... I don't really feel that my kilts are any more special than other bottoms.

Easy enough to say that now... Remember those days before Xmarks got going?

... I don't have the guts to wear pink or leather pants...

I too have... difficulties... wearing pink. I think I could handle one of those leather R-kilts though.

... I like to walk my own paths.

I think most kilt wearers must be that way to a certain degree.

... Kilts are just the extension of our heritage and/or personality. No more. No less.

Like it or not... they are a declaration of same.

[Kilted KT]

Blu, you nailed on the head. Nothing more to say.

[Chris Webb]

Kilts are just the extension of our heritage and/or personality. No more. No less.

If this is the case then how do we explain the existence of this forum, its passions, its disagreements, its evolving language, its growth, its startling array of moving stories of the kilting experience?

For guys like us, guys who have been kilting so long or so much that the newness has worn thin, it seems that kilts simply drift into the same benign and meaningless catagory of clothing as every other mundane thing in our closets. But for those who come here for information, who post with joy the arrival of their first kilt, the kilt is much more.

Kilting is an adventure, a foray into the often unexplored forrest of all things different, at least where clothing is concerned. Kilting for many is a brave departure from the sometimes enforcable expectations of family, mates, friends and coworkers ... bosses. Kilting becomes mundane only when the kilted man grows beyond all that has kept him unkilted in the past.

Raphael is right, it does eventually become just an extension of our heritage and/or personality ... but remember when it was more than that when talking with or writing to those for whom kilts are new. I know what Raphael means, even now I'm wearing a pair of running shorts I've had for 17 years ... there was a time when I wouldn't write about kilts unless I was wearing one at the time, a matter of honor or honesty, I guess.

I do still remember, though, when kilts were new to me, shocking to my family, bewildering to my old friends. Kilts still have meaning beyond just being a piece of clothing, it's just that I'm so used to them now that there is little left to experience for the first time. It's refreshing to me to read the posts of those who are new to all this, it gives me back some of the excitement I've lost through the routine of a thousand days of kilting.

All the Best and Kilt On.

Chris Webb