Quote Originally Posted by Cowher View Post
I hate to say this but it's threads like this that make me post less and visit less on this forum. I have even stopped wearing my kilts around the house and to non highland game/bagpipe events. The comfort and confidence that first made me fall in love with the kilt has been replaced with fear, uncomfort and unease. I have stopped purchasing kilt accessories and even stopped looking for them.
When I first joined here I learned heaps. I looked to others to develop my kilted style and found that even though I'm a big guy I could look darn good in a kilt.
Now I feel as if we have shifted into a divided group. FatherBill a month it two back made comments that he felt as if he should sell his kilt and accessories. I feel the same now as he did then.

People of Scotland who still live in Scotland. If you want "others" to wear "your" national garb in a honorable and sophisticated way then share tips on style. These threads of debate on who can wear a kilt or how or whatever are useless and hurt more than help.

*sigh* I'm going to go have a pint.
One of the things that I came to realize pretty soon after I began to wear the kilt is that any time I was out and about in the kilt I would encounter people who had ALL KINDS of opinions about it, ranging from very positive to very negative, and not all of those opinions would be grounded in rational thought.

When you wear the kilt, you have to be willing to put up with all kinds of opinions and comments; and you have to learn to filter out those that you want to give heed to and those which you want to discard.

This is true in person as well as on line!

I'll end with a favorite quote of mine:
"The Highland dress is essentially a 'free' dress -- that is to say, a man's taste and circumstances must alone be permitted to decide when and where and how he should wear it... I presume to dictate to no man what he shall eat or drink or wherewithal he shall be clothed." -- The Hon. Stuart Ruaidri Erskine, The Kilt & How to Wear It, 1901.