Kilt Do's and Don'ts

[DWFII]

...the vast majority of kilted locals are t-shirted. Will the latter fashion last long enough to become a tradition? I, for one, suspect that it will. In the US.

If and when it does, will those in the kilt-and-t-shirt culture have a right to tell those in the jacket-and-tie culture that they are not adhering to the "rules" of tradition?

I don't know...I don't think so. Part and parcel of tradition...and I guess you have to decide on a personal level whether to give it due deference or not...are the founding principles and the cultural context that beget tradition. And/or...whether there is a cultural context in the first place.

It might be instructive to consider the non-traditional kilt. On some level, at least for the distant observer, it is hard to make any connection between a non-trad kilt and the traditional dress of the Highlands and/or a deferential posture toward Scots history and ancestry.

Given that, I wonder...are non-traditional kilts fashion? What (where) are the cultural antecedents? Will they disappear from common or even uncommon usage over time? To this observer, there is no connection to tradition nor is there ever likely to be one if for no other reason than that it is very hard to discern any long lasting cultural association for the non-traditional kilt (maybe that's why we call it "non-traditional").

Again, I think this tends to zero in on the distinction between "fashion" and tradition.

For that same reason, T-shirts may be a fashion that has a long tenure...it remains to be seen...but, in general, T-shirts by themselves have no significance to anyone , and certainly not on a culture-wide level (some wear Nike , some wear Coke)--they are a cultural phenomenon but I doubt they are or ever will be a tradition associated with kilts.

But more importantly, for all the reasons given above, I don't think that this kind of "tradition" can spring up on foreign soil, so to speak. Again, there are no cultural antecedents and because of that it seems (to me at least) a little arrogant for those with tenuous (at best) connections to the "founding principles" to be trying to "teach their old granny to suck eggs."

Maybe a quick review of the kilt as a military uniform will bear me out. How has the kilt and the traditions of wearing it changed--in Canada, in the Colonies, in New Zealand, in Australia? Not much, if at all or so I am given to believe.