To Lend, or Not to Lend?

[Meggers]

I also asked him if he had Scottish heritage, and he said he doesn't have any at all - it turns out the kilt was his date's idea!

Further proof that men in kilts are significantly more appealing to the fairer sex.

Shout out to the guy in my old sociology class who argued with me about "real men" wearing kilts or not.

I feel so victorious.

[Newfoundlander]

This is a tough one for sure... I think in short, I'd agree with most here not to lend your fine quality kilt out in this case, both for your sake and his. Allow me to illustrate.

A close friend and colleague that I've known almost my entire career has a son in a private school. He's generally a good young lad, he's respectful of others and their property, and typically well behaved. In his school the young ladies wear tartan skirts (Ramsey hunting actually, same as my uni's tartan). Well, as sort of a play on this, he wished to wear my kilt to a school dinner. Like yours, my kilt was a very significant investment, and means a lot to me on a personal level. He asked the day before the dinner, and since there are no rental places here, this was his only option. After a bit of thought, I agreed and lent him my kilt.

He delivered the kilt back to me the next Saturday morning, as expected, completely and totally unscathed. BUT, his one comment on the evening was that he was so nervous about spilling coffee or something on my kilt and damaging it that he didn't really enjoy his time as he would have otherwise. He also felt a tiny bit of self-consciousness being so different from the rest of the boys this time out. I think the fact that he wasn't as "used" to a kilt as I am played a role.

On the other hand, the ladies were quite taken with it (of course!)

Fast forward a year, and this years dinner is in 3 weeks and we just got him in his very own kilt. It is a Black Watch ex-rental kilt from a shop where I know the owner quite well and got a good price for him. He's excited to go kilted again, but even more excited not to be so worried over a stain.

So if you can, help set this young lad up with a rental, or even a rush order off-the-peg kilt from somewhere if possible. It might end up saving you both a bit of stress during the course of the evening, and you might make another kiltie out of it

[Calico]

Cygnus, you came up with an excellent solution. Glad it worked out.

My wife and I are going to a Highland Games this weekend and are taking another couple who are good friends. I was going to offer him the use of my 2nd kilt (a wool tank). But this is a very different situation than yours. We hang out a lot and I would like him to get interested in kilt wearing, plus it is a controlled environment and I'll be there the whole time.

At the same time, I wouldn't lend it to my brother. I've loaned him special clothing (a cloak I made) in the past and it was basically ruined. Not really his fault, he took it to a dry cleaner after he wore it and they did the damage.