"I apologise in advance to those who love the plain, non-tartan kilts, but personally I just could not see myself in them at all. They don't seem to hang, swing or flow like a well made tartan kilt. Without the rich colour and meaning of tartan they seem very bland to me..."

No need to apologize for personal taste. You like the look and feel of tartan, no problem. Personally, I own 12 non-traditional kilts; ten Utilikilts and two I had a seamstress make. I like them, they do the job I want them to do, which is to get me out of pants without anyone thinking I'm cross-dressing.

"...they are a male skirt as far as I see."

Hate to break this to you, but so is a kilt. Get over it. ;) Personally, I have no problem with wearing a male skirt. As long as nobody thinks I'm cross-dressing, I don't care what they call it. But that's because of why I wear a kilt (or male skirt if you prefer, since at this moment I'm wearing a navy blue mocker-style utilikilt with a dress shirt and nary a skian dubh to be found). I was an exchange student to Southeast Asia back in the late 80's, and every evening everybody would take a shower and put on a sarong. It was a revelation of comfort, and I knew that I wanted to wear something so comfortable on a regular basis. The sarongs I wore are impractical in day-day-day life for a few reasons, but kilts seemed to cover those deficiencies nicely. Then I found out how much a tartan kilt costs. I also wondered how comfortable 8 yards of wool would be in the middle of summer, and it seemed that so many accessories were mandatory, driving the price up even further. So much for that idea. Then Utilikilts came along, and it was like someone had said "y'know, you've got a point. Here, have some freedom." For what my 12 kilts cost, I could only have bought 3 traditional tartan kilts, and I'd be so worked up about how much I'd paid for them that I'd never wear them! Instead, I haven't worn pants in close to two years (except on the motorcycle) and I couldn't be happier.


"I know this will upset some, but from the many photos I went through, my perception (maybe wrong) was that wearers had to accessorise with the most macho gear they could fine as if to prove that they are dressed in a masculine way. Whereas with a tartan kilt, no such "explanation" needs to be made."

There may be some of that with some first time kilt-wearers. I certainly remember saying once, early on, "if a man is going to wear a skirt, the rest of his clothing has to scream 'I could kick your ***'". But I felt that way regardless before I'd ever heard of anything like Utilikilts. But if you check out the "Utilikilts at work" page
http://www.utilikilts.com/atwork-photogal.htm
you'll see a different story entirely. From the Utilikilts I've helped to sell (bias alert!), plenty of people walk into the booth already wearing pretty macho gear though. Also, there's the fact that tartan kilts have other traditional accoutrements pre-defined, while modern kilts don't. I've noticed that people wearing tartan kilts who aren't wearing them as part of a costume (i.e. for a celtic festival or formal event) also tend to wear pretty masculine looking clothing. But that's just my perception, and your experience may be different from mine.


"The only positive thing I could say it that they are cheapish and make it more affordable for lads to get out of trousers."

And to me, that's the only positive thing that NEEDS to be said. I mean, that's why I wear them: they're comfortable, affordable, and chicks seriously dig them. I sum it up this way: I at a bar and I spill my beer all over my kilt. If it's a traditional tartan kilt, I worry about staining the wool and ponder the dry cleaning costs. If it's a Utilikilt, I get another beer.

But that's just my outlook. It doesn't have to be yours. Heck, you can wear p@nts for all it affects me

Keith