Two Telling comments? The Answer Perhaps?

[TheOfficialBren]

It's also likely related to the Highland/Lowland divide that's always existed in Scotland. As Neil Oliver once said, "the two often don't understand one another."

[MacLowlife]

Well, Jock, I have heard an expression, whether tongue-in-cheek or not, that says "Two types of people wear the kilt... Scots in America, and Americans in Scotland." Your neighbor's son may be manifesting that perception.

On the flip side, I've been asked on more than a few occasions, while wearing the kilt, if I was from Scotland. So both sides of that coin may be perceived as truer than we'd care to believe.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914) wrote that, or something very close to it, in his Devil's Dictionary 100 years ago.

Perhaps the closest we can come is "aloha" shirts on people who live in Hawaii.

[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.

[BBNC]

I don't want to ruffle any feathers, but has anyone noticed that the normal, everyday wear for much of Western Europe looks like it was imported from North America, especially the US? What about the UK; we picture a gentleman enjoying the outdoors dressed in tweeds, tattersall shirt, tie and tweed hat. Or would that be touristy in England?

[StevieR]

I don't want to ruffle any feathers, but has anyone noticed that the normal, everyday wear for much of Western Europe looks like it was imported from North America, especially the US? What about the UK; we picture a gentleman enjoying the outdoors dressed in tweeds, tattersall shirt, tie and tweed hat. Or would that be touristy in England?

Perhaps normal, everyday wear for North America was imported from Europe?

[James Hood]

In all the outside-the-USA places personally visited / traveled, this metro-Chicagoan was aghast and to all practical purposes repelled by the vast, vast, vast, vast pure numbers of visibly-not-USA locals in...

...blue jeans, "brand" athletic shoes, flip-flops, tee-shirts with logos etc, denim, baseball caps and "American black leather" jackets. What was reeeaal weird is how many american pro spots teams logos were on so much of the clothing in "Non-USA."

Personal "return thought" to them, "WE DO NOT dress well, WHY DO YOU WANT TO LOOK LIKE "us" ?????????????????

[guardsman]

My oh my , think we should all burn this great garment , spit in our parents eye , and say sod the kilt . But my parents are proud of me for doing so . So sod the rest of the world , I am a son of Scottish Ma and Pa , and for special times I will celebrate by wearing the kilt ,I only wish I was a true born Scot , not a sassenach as my Dad always says .

[Lodrorigdzin]

Well no, it's obvious what the solution is: the kilt has to become ubiquitous as menswear.

[guardsman]

Well it is , in small proportions , if diamonds were bricks springs to mind .

[greybadger]

What about the UK; we picture a gentleman enjoying the outdoors dressed in tweeds, tattersall shirt, tie and tweed hat. Or would that be touristy in England?

Remove the tweed hat (and the tie if it's hot and not a formal do) and you're pretty spot on for the country sport side of life in England.