Well, I hope Bear feels a whole bunch better after getting that little lot off his chest!!

All I did was point out that proper research has shown that Rawlinson didn't invent the little kilt, and I used a quote from Newsome as one of the sources to illustrate this simply because the article was readily available for copying and pasting from the net, saving me a lot of typing or scanning. Actually, the full story about Rawlinson was that it was a tailor by the name of I think Pilkington who did the actual inventing part, and on hearing of it Rawlinson ordered one for himself and then more for his workforce.

With regard to the quote from Newsome that irritated Bear so much, it is explained by the very next sentence which says "Most of our ideas about the kilt are based on myth, legend, misconceptions, and (worse yet) Hollywood." All very true and which simply formed the introduction to a reasoned argument, some points of which were unfortunately lost in the abbreviated article, which concluded that the garment currently known round the world as the Scottish kilt was indeed invented in Scotland in the late 17th/early 18th century and not in Ireland, the Isle of Man or anywhere else. There is almost unanimous agreement amongst researchers on this point, and I fail to see why this gets Bear so excited!

Be that as it may, I hardly think this is the place to go writing treatises about the origin of the kilt (there's not enough space on this forum for a book!)

What a lot of people tend to forget that at the time the early kilt was evolving, there was no such thing as fashion garments/designer labels or the like, and clothing was designed to suit a particular climate and purpose - eg natives in the Amazon jungle only wear loin cloths, whereas Eskimos had animal fur/skin coverall suits. The wool kilt was particularly suitable to the Scottish temperate climate and was an excellent garment for working and walking in the Scottish countryside, firstly as the great kilt which was used as a blanket when sleeping out of doors then when this was no longer required, it evolved into the separate little kilt and plaid which could be used as a cloak when necessary. Although the plaid has now been more or less dropped in favour of more modern jackets/coats or whatever (except for mostly ceremonial occasions), nevertheless in Scotland wool remains the material of choice most suited to our particular climate (and I have worn wool kilts as my normal everyday garment for the past 40+ years).

Some kiltmakers in Scotland, noteably TFCK, have tried alternative materials but they have not really caught on with the general kilt-buying public, and as someone "in the trade", Bear should know there is no future in supplying an unsaleable product!

However, wool is not the best material for hotter climates and I do not know of any Scot who objects to kilts made either elsewhere or of cooler man-made materials for these climes, provided only that if the garment is going to be called a kilt then it actually looks like a kilt, and if it's going to be called a Scottish kilt then it should be wool. In fact, I'm sure that the only garment I have ever objected to is the so-called Mountain Kilt, which has no resemblance whatever to a kilt but is simply a straight or A-line wrap-over skirt made of, I think, nylon.

I've forgotten where I'm going with this posting, so had better stop as it's already far too long!!