Wearing the kilt in Scotland

[cessna152towser]

I'm appalled to learn of CeilidhDoc's experience of St. Andrews. My daughter took her degree at St. Andrews from 2000 to 2004 and I usually wore a kilt when I visited her. Nobody ever questioned my nationality or right to wear a kilt.
Racism can occur anywhere in the world. In fact the only time I have been attacked was when I was punched in the face by an English lager lout back in 1989 in Eastbourne in the South of England who took umbrage to my Scots accent. I was not wearing a kilt at the time. Did it make me racist or anti-English? No. Indeed many of my friends are English and I have been across the border today doing my regular volunteer duty at an air museum in the north of England, and wearing my Royal Air Force tartan kilt.

[SeumasA]

One thing I like about this forum is the international audience. Here in the States we tend to look at things from our own unique viewpoint, and we don't always remember that others (including our neighbor to the north) oftentimes have a completely different perspective.

I was telling my wife about this discussion and mentioned my earlier comment about blending in. She was quick to point out that my Levi's and cowboy hat would label me as a tourist every bit as much as wearing the kilt.

[Jordan]

One thing I like about this forum is the international audience. Here in the States we tend to look at things from our own unique viewpoint, and we don't always remember that others (including our neighbor to the north) oftentimes have a completely different perspective.

I was telling my wife about this discussion and mentioned my earlier comment about blending in. She was quick to point out that my Levi's and cowboy hat would label me as a tourist every bit as much as wearing the kilt.

Your hat would but Jeans would blend right in over here.

[TheOfficialBren]

Your hat would but Jeans would blend right in over here.

Perhaps but probably not if they're cowboy cut Wranglers.

[Jordan]

Perhaps but probably not if they're cowboy cut Wranglers.

Unless they are massively different I doubt they'd stand out too much.

[SeumasA]

You know, I saw a lot of jeans but I don't think I saw anybody in actual Levi's.

[TheOfficialBren]

Unless they are massively different I doubt they'd stand out too much.

Tight, starchy, and extremely uncomfortable to wear. Highly impractical trousers in an urban environment since they were designed for cowboys by cowboys.

(I was mostly making a funny, my friend, when I brought up cowboy jeans. )

Edited to add (and support what SeumasA said):
I used to live in Hollywood and attended a music school with a majority of the student body being from Western Europe. I got to know tons of British people. An observation that I also made is that their fashion was very different. Even their jeans were not like American jeans. They were cut differently and certainly styled differently. Even the denim seemed to be different in many cases. Not once did I see them wearing American brands or styles unless they bought them here. I also learned to like (and adopt) a few foreign styles, too. Diversity, my friends.

[Lodrorigdzin]

You know, I saw a lot of jeans but I don't think I saw anybody in actual Levi's.

G-star Raw Denim is the go to brand, and that's Dutch.

[kilttrip]

Kilttrip.

"With the greatest of respect, you are not my cousin, or my brother and never will be, but if you were, then you would be my American cousin---yes I have those---however I hope and expect that any visitor to Scotland should be treated with the utmost respect and courtesy".

I may not be a cousin of yours, and certainly not a brother, as you say. But you never know. I am related to four U.S. presidents and am a direct descendent of Governor Bradford who came to the "colonies" aboard the Mayflower. Now, considering the odds of being related to four presidents - when most people would be extremely proud and consider themselves to be very lucky to be related to ONE president - and a direct descendent of a famous passenger of the Mayflower, would it be more astounding to believe that I may also be one of your distant cousins? Without an extensive search of mine and your family tree, I guess we'll never know.

In any case, when a native Scot would welcome someone of Scottish ancestry by calling him 'cousin', it is more of a generic term recognizing their ancestry. After all, there are tens of thousands more people of Scottish ancestry living abroad than the sum total of ALL native Scots living in Scotland.

[Ron Abbott]

Jock Scot also finished his post off with,"........however I hope and expect that any visitor to Scotland should be treated with the utmost respect and courtesy".

I would suggest that, that point does not appear to have quite received the attention that it deserves.

If we're going to be pedantic and the scientists and academics have got it right.......we're all cousins to the nth degree, our ancestors coming from somewhere in the African continent!