Kilts and costumes

[arrScott]

I am sorry to be a "stick in the mud",but kilts are not and never have been a costume.Part of a uniform certainly,part of Highland dress most definitely,copied the world over--- be my guest,but please please please,I beg you, NEVER worn as a costume.

I respect where you're coming from, but I'd argue that a uniform is something you wear to play a role "for real." A costume is something you wear to play a role "for pretend." For example, I play on a vintage base ball team; we recreate baseball as it was played in the 1860s. We wear vintage-style shield-front shirts, flat-topped caps, knickers, and stockings. When I wear that outfit to play a game, it's a uniform. When I wear it to answer the door on Halloween night, it's a costume. It's all about what you intend when you wear a thing.

Should, say, police officers ever wear their distinctive outfits as costumes rather than uniforms? I'd think not. It would confuse observers and undermine the authority of the clothes when worn as a uniform. For kilts, this consideration would only apply to specific individuals who are trying to persuade specific others of their seriousness in wearing the kilt, whether as a uniform or everyday wear. In that case, for those people, wearing a kilt as a costume would undermine their purpose in wearing a kilt at other times. But that shouldn't prevent others from having fun and wearing their kilts as costumes if they please.

I mean, nobody would say, "You shouldn't wear pants as part of your Halloween costume if you normally wear pants," right? Just because you wear a cowboy hat around town the rest of the year doesn't mean you can't dress up as a cowboy for Halloween.