Two of the notable events that I've gone to Black Tie and Kilted:

The Richard Driehaus Architecture Award Dinner. That was fun...one other fella showed up kilted, a student from Notre Dame as Mr. Driehaus is a big supporter of the architecture program at ND. I ended up getting pulled over for speeding on the way home and was really hoping that the copper wasn't going to say, "All right, step out of the car.", cause I really didn't want to have to explain the whole regalia to a cop in the middle of the night on Ashland Avenue.

The dinner for the opening of the new wing of the Chicago Art Institute. I walked in and was immediately surrounded by the press. It took several minutes to assure them that I was, indeed, nobody of any great importance and make the point that if no one else had shown up in a kilt, it wasn't my fault. Had a few of the smarmy art crowd make snide comments but the people that I like that were there seemed to appreciate my having taken all the trouble to make it a special occasion.

My observations on wearing a kilt to a special event are these:

You will invariably have a certain percentage of people who will assume that you did it to draw attention to yourself. This reflects more on their insecurities and need for attention than anything else. Sorry to "upstage" you, my dears, but this is what I wear...deal with it.

The other is that you will always get one guy who will come up and say, "Oh yeah...y'know, I've got a kilt too." At which point I try to get a very honest and innocent look on my face and ask, "Then why aren't you wearing it?" This is where the fella usually changes the subject.

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AA