Two Telling comments? The Answer Perhaps?

[StevieR]

I think the fact of the matter is that most Scots don't wear the kilt ever, never mind daily. And for most Scots there never has been a tradition of kilt wearing.

The great kilt was unique to the highlands pre Culloden. Post Culloden and even after the Victorian "renaissance" the vast majority of all Scots would have worn trousers (the chaps, that is!) and even if the inclination was there, again, for most (who only owned two pairs of trousers - one for work, one for Sunday best) the purchase would have been deemed frivolous in the extreme.

As a boy I well remember a consensus that if the kilt was worn at all, it was deemed the preserve of the highlander. A lowlander should mark his allegiance to family or country by wearing tartan trews. My dad and uncle, to the best of my knowledge, were the first kilt wearers in my family since some distant relative may have worn the great kilt - "shoe-horned" into them by my granny, very much against their will, back in the 1940's. My dad never bothered after that, though my uncle persevered.

I will be attending a niece's wedding (in the Highlands) next year. Her father and brother will be in hired kilts. My uncle, his son and I will be the only ones from the brides family in kilts we own. I suspect most of the male guests will be trousered. As my own foray into the kilt is only a recent thing, I will suffer the inevitable "pish" take from the assorted throng and will be chided by various aunts and great aunts for wasting my money on "one of those things". All the same, I suspect that more Scots wear the kilt now, than they ever did in the (not too distant) past, although for most, it would be restricted to a wedding, Hogmanay, Burns Supper or some other special occasion.