Two Telling comments? The Answer Perhaps?

[OC Richard]

Yes Jock that sums it up!

Who wears Aloha Shirts in Hawai'i? Visiting Mainlanders, mostly. I see Hawaiians every day and I've never seen one wear such. They wear t-shirts, often with Hawaiian graphics or sayings ("Da Kine", "Hawai'i No Ka Oi", or my favourite, "Haole: The Other White Meat").

As I've said before, if I wore a kilt in Scotland I would feel something like a Japanese tourist here in the US Southwest wearing a full Cowboy outfit. I do think Western Wear (as we call it) is a pretty good analogy with Highland Dress. I do see people (from the US southwest) walking around fairly often in full cowboy kit, but it still stands out as being a tad unusual. Were a foreigner to wear it, it would stand out as an absurdity.

It perhaps goes without saying wearing Highland Dress while playing with a Pipe Band is the exception. At the World Pipe Band Championships one sees bands from Canada, the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Italia, Brasil, Nederland, etc etc in full Highland Dress. These people aren't tourists dressing up as Scots, but musicians wearing their band uniform.