Short Sleeves

[OC Richard]

In most of the threads that discuss causal but traditional wear I see examples of button front shirts as opposed to polo style.

If I choose to wear a polo style shirt am I diverging too far from tradition...

You don't see polo shirts discussed in connexion with traditional kilt wear for the simple reason that they're a fairly recent invention, and don't come from the world of Highland Dress or traditional British country dress.

There's a lot of overlap between Highland Day Dress and British country dress and shooting attire: the tweed, the Tattersall shirts, the socks.

With the outfits worn for playing Polo, or Tennis, not so much.

The reason is obvious: traditional Highland Day Dress and traditional British country and shooting attire have both long been worn when tramping around in the country. You don't wear kilts playing tennis or polo, so there it is.

But heck this is America and guys wear any shirt they'd wear with jeans, with kilts: t-shirts, polo shirts, golf shirts, even Hawai'ian shirts. Is it in the Scottish Highland tradition? No. Is it done here? Of course it is, all the time.

Ditto hats, and shoes.

I do it sometimes. Here I am, in a t-shirt and baseball cap.



Nowadays I'll more likely dress like this. The hat and long sleeves give me the needed protection from the sun; the vest gives me four more pockets to carry things.



When I first saw the title of this thread I thought it was going to be about the Pipe Band thing of wearing short-sleeved shirts with waistcoats. It's a very common Pipe Band look, but many people hate it. It's not traditional of course, but you see it all the time.