In many parts of the world there are male 'skirts': and I have seen them in The Pacific-Greece-The Maldives, South East Asia, and of course Scotland!

[Sorry, so as not to make this too complicated I've not mentioned Ireland and Wales, and the like-so please do not feel slighted.]

There are various names-such as Sulu, Sarong, Fustanella and of course the Kilt: in every case there is a certain link to the heritage of a specific people.

In the case of the kilt, that link is to Scotland and the heritage of Scotland: it is not to America-England or anywhere else: so to claim that the kilt is an American garment is nonsense. Fair enough that is a Scottish garment adopted for reason by some Americans, but that does not make it American.

Rather it is necessary to accept that if using the word kilt as a description of what one is wearing, subsumed to the use of that world is the link to Scotland and its heritage. Just as if using the word Sulu one would be looking to the Pacific, or Fustanella to Greece.

The root of the problem lies in the fact that many men are looking for entirely good reasons to wear an unbifurcated garment-yes a skirt: but to justify that wear are linking it to the world kilt. Doing this because kilt has a strong masculine association and thus they can distance themselves from any suggestion that they are indulging in an unmanly activity. At this point some are rightly looking to develop practical innovations to what they call the kilt for their own entirely good reasons: yet such developments can ever more distance what they are wearing from the kilt and its traditions.

This is not to deny that the kilt itself is an evolving garment, but it is a very different thing for that evolution to take place as a natural event within a developing heritage: than to try and remove the evolution entirely from its natural roots.

At this point we must come full circle and state that if using the word kilt, one is by definition accepting the link with Scotland and its heritage: if not accepting this, it is not the kilt that is being worn.

The root of the problem lies not in what men are wearing, but what it is called: and trying to stretch a definition beyond its rightful bounds. With the inevitable effect of polarising opinion into opposing camps.

I hope that my various posts since being a member of this board have shown that it is not my intention to trample upon American aspirations and culture: asking that just as I respect their ways, Americans will respect ours.

James