Why don't people wear their kilts more?

[Karl R]

To me, if a guy has a kilt, and he wears it - even once a year to his local highland games - he is then wearing it at the exact frequency that is best for him.

Someone else may have totally different reasons and may think about the kilt totally differently from you. You cannot apply your reasoning to someone else.

Its not about spot, its not about any of the other things you mention.
I have one friend who wears his kilt only to an annual Burns dinner. He does not wear it to our local highland games or any other time. He just does not want to.

I think you're overlooking the obvious, in your attempt to be right.

In the first example, the gentleman saw me in my kilt, and his knee-jerk reaction was, "Damn it! I should have worn my kilt."

It sounds to me like that he wanted to wear his kilt. He wanted to wear it to that occasion. He's not wearing a kilt when he wants to, and when he thinks he ought to.

That sounds very different from your one friend ... unless that friend spends his time at the highland games wishing that he'd worn his kilt.

Others have said similar things in this thread....

A number of times when I have been kilted in the city of Wellington guys have said they have a kilt and “should wear it”.

It's not just Houston, I live in Kansas City (Kansas side). I attended Lodge last month wearing a kilt and was approached by a couple of Lodge brothers who stated that if they had known someone was going to wear a kilt they would have worn theirs.

regardless of the occasion or circumstances, every time I've actually debated whether or not to kilt up and chose not to, I've regretted it [....] I also have often the experience when I do wear a kilt to a particular event and other men in attendance pointed out that they too own a kilt, and my response, of course, is always "So WHY aren't you wearing it?" (their sheepish reaction and their wives' nodding approval is always amusing). So perhaps it is ultimately a matter of "conditioning", as they say in Psychology.

I wear a kilt almost everyday. In my travels I run across guys that approach me and say "I have a kilt and maybe I should have worn mine today". Why didn't they do so? Just because of what Tobus said. They don't want to be the only one.

I really think Tobus and Mike in Dayton have a point. Many kilt owners want to wear their kilt more. They just don't want to be the only one.

But as far as the OP's experience goes, at that concert I too would have worn Highland Dress because I've not owned a suit in decades. I can't see going to the expense of buying a suit that I would very rarely wear (being as I'm in Southern California) when I have Highland Dress that will serve when needed.

Your point-of-view makes perfect sense (to me). And it's also a complete counterpoint to the examples described above.

Those examples went to the expense of buying a kilt that they don't wear. That, to me, seems ... not entirely rational.

(In all fairness, two of my three initial examples were presumably happy with their wardrobe choices on the evenings I chatted with them.)

I’ve no occasion.

I sort of get this ... and I sort of don't.

I fully understand not wearing a kilt where there's no occasion. I'm not really searching for reasons to wear my kilt to work (even though a few of my coworkers might be amused). My business is a little too conservative for kilt-wearing. It might be tolerated. But I'm not sufficiently motivated to test the boundaries of that. Particularly not on the average workday, when I expect to be preoccupied with work. I also don't wear a kilt around the house. I have other (less expensive) clothes for that.

On the other hand, we have some control over the occasions we attend, and we have much more control over what we consider to be an "occasion." When planning a date night with my wife, I could choose dinner theatre (with a semi-formal/formal dress code) ... or I could choose the Houston rodeo ... where a kilt would be ... um ... a less obvious wardrobe choice.

And even at a fancy dinner theatre, where a kilt was clearly appropriate attire, nobody would have faulted me for choosing not to wear one. It was my choice whether or not it constituted an "occasion" for a kilt, or not.

Next weekend is St. Patrick's Day. One of my (two) kilts is the Irish Heritage kilt. Therefore, that seems to me to be a sufficient occasion to wear a kilt. I will probably wear my kilt at least once in the coming weekend. Probably twice. Maybe three times.

I think imbrius gave some good examples of how one can choose that something is an "occasion" worthy of a kilt.