As I said in my intro, my initial motivation for starting to wear my kilt was specifically to look different and, therefore, to be easily located. But since I retired, it's just another pleasant option, depending on what the day holds. I suppose that counts me in both the "let's keep it exclusive" and "let's promote it more generally" groups. So going off to get the week's groceries is an obvious occasion. And today I did the rounds of the car yards kilted, looking for a replacement car.

Interestingly, spontaneous discussions about the kilt seem to come from two sources, ladies who ask if I'm going somewhere special and gentlemen with some link to Scotland. Quite a lot of these brief conversations end with the ladies saying they would like to get their significant others into a kilt and the gents saying they wouldn't be brave enough or they couldn't afford a kilt. I should say, the vast majority of people just take no notice and I've only ever had one less than positive comment, from a group of lads on the Underground (subway) in London, who had clearly had too much "falling down juice"!

There is, I think, a perception that kilts are very expensive and, indeed, for a handstitched pure wool worsted kilt that is true (the local kiltmaker - yes, there is at least one here in Australia - charges from around $550 Australian for a bespoke kilt). But there are cheaper options and while members of this auguste body would spot them immediately, the vast majority of the population wouldn't, so for an introduction to kilt wearing, it needn't be an expensive experiment.

Of course, as most here will attest, once you are hooked, the cost can become somewhat more significant!

As for the "bravery", or lack of it, part, I think we can encourage others by, as Nike say, "just doing it" as a completely natural dress choice.

My words of wisdom in these random conversations don't seem to have had much effect so far, in that I've never seen another kilt wearer in Australia since we moved here four years ago, unless you count a bagpiper at Sydney harbour who seemed to be wearing a modified lady's tartan skirt. To make my earlier point, very few people noticed anything except a "kilted" piper.