The Importance of knowing the Rules of Kilted Fashion

[Smayniac]

But you can pretend to wake a man who is pretending to sleep, or you could just rifle through his wallet. That'll get his attention.

Only if you are willing to reach into the rubber chicken sporran in your case.

Bob

[sharpdressedscot]

I believe that the only rules that should be written down are:

Don't wear your pleats in the front

Don't call it a skirt

The bottom shouldn't touch the ground

Wear it with pride



I think everything else is up to the wearer. Unless you're going for the "Traditional" look.

[Leprechaun 91]

I believe that the only rules that should be written down are:

Don't wear your pleats in the front

Don't call it a skirt

The bottom shouldn't touch the ground

Wear it with pride



I think everything else is up to the wearer. Unless you're going for the "Traditional" look.

I have to agree here. But the respect should always be given from all sides. You have to be respectful AND others should treat you with respect.

[sharpdressedscot]

I have to agree here. But the respect should always be given from all sides. You have to be respectful AND others should treat you with respect.

Of course, I was just stating my own opinion on this matter.

[Abax]

I break the rules when I wear a kilt where I live. Now what? I should follow the rules for wearing a kilt somewhere else? I think this is the essence of what Jock Scot and others perceive as arrogance.

For me, yes . . . I follow many of the rules for wearing a kilt elsewhere as I traipse about the United States. It makes me feel like *some* of the people I meet might think I'm following the rules. It's also a shortcut for looking good

Abax

[BroosterB1]

The keynote is looking good. Somehow when kilted you just care a bit more...you want to look; well your best. That feeling infuses into the rest of your attitude. I mean who wants to look sloppy when kilted?

Yes, you carry yourself a touch higher, and yes, you are a bit (not alot, a bit) more self aware, but as to rules? You are breaking the biggest rule of them all, conformity! So if it's drum an pipe full dress, or X-lilt with a tee shirt, have at it and loose the dogs of war! If you look good, and you feel good, that should be enough!

[The Wizard of BC]

If I may,,,

There are so many people on this thread getting upset over the word "rules".

May I suggest we change the word in the title to "Conventions"

A convention is a set of agreed, stipulated or generally accepted standards, norms, social norms or criteria, often taking the form of a custom.

This is what we're really talking about here. We usually agree that some things are just wrong. We usually agree that some things are right or OK.
The entire "Kilt do's and don'ts" thread proves that.

If one person breaks a rule, and others agree that it is an improvement and begin to emulate it then it becomes an accepted "convention".

If one person breaks a rule, and we all laugh at him, then we have agreed it was stupid.

A rule, like a law, is not a rule if it is not enforceable. And as we all know there aren't any Kilt Kops. So there are no "rules" to be broken.

We all police ourselves. We make judgments of others and how they wear the Kilt. We then choose to follow, or not.

Over the last 200 years we Kilt wearers have agreed that a Kilt looks better with the Pleats in the back. We have agreed that a Jacket worn with a Kilt looks better if it is shorter than a Suit Coat. We have agreed that Spats & a Horse Hair Sporran look better on a Pipe Major than they do on the street.

The word "Rule" seems to be one of those button words that upsets the Kilt World. Just as the word "Skirt" seems to.

[ThistleDown]

With all due respect, perhaps there is another misunderstanding in this thread. The Scots present are not critiquing the wearing of the kilt by non-Scots. Neither are they in any way suggesting that the kilt should be worn in accordance with any set of written or unwritten rules – other than, perhaps, the obvious pleats-in-the-back ones, and the like.

This thread is about “kilted fashion” and what we are trying to get across is that the Scottish kilt is just a part of the Scottish National Dress; if one wants to wear Scottish National Dress (including the Scottish kilt) there are customs/conventions to be followed. It is not the kilt we are referring to, you see, but to its accompaniments and the manner of wearing them.

Over time its current form has evolved from attire arguably original to the Scottish Highlands, but that evolution is without question within Scotland. It could not and cannot evolve outside Scotland and still be called Scottish National or Highland Dress.

Scottish Highland Dress is alive today; it did not come to an end with a sketch in 1646, or a memory of 1746, or a painting in 1846, or a photo taken in 1946. It is evolving even as we think and write.

When a question is asked about how that dress is worn today – the conventions -- it is not possible for the answer to be expressed in terms of current custom or fashion in New South Wales, or Ontario, or Nebraska, or Cape Town, or Amsterdam -- but only in Scotland.

The tail does not wag the dog.

[Bugbear]

I saw that, but it's OK, Ted. I've never noticed you ever getting defensive. Just inquisitive.

Kind regards,
Rex.

Thanks Rex. I had to spend some time sitting in the pouting corner thinking about what I had done, and where it all went wrong.

I will still stick to the MacMillan of Rathdown advice on formal attire for the most part, but I will be quiet about it.

[Monkey@Arms]

I am getting a little confused by the direction this thread has taken. Perhaps our Scottish brethren who have chosen to post would give examples of the unconventional wearing of the kilt that they are discussing. It seems to me most of the differences that I have seen aired in the past has to do with who wears what tartan, and issues of heraldry, as opposed to fashion choices and accessories that would be discernible by the casual viewer. Is that what we are talking about? (I usually don't read the hat threads, so perhaps that's where the controversy lies.)

As to the tail wagging the dog, I am of the view that kilted fashions can and most definitely have evolved in different ways in different places. One may not like it, but it is a fact. Again, its does no good to say its "wrong," as its about convention. It seems that these conventions (like most fashion trends) often have their roots in the merchants that sell and rent kilts, both in the UK and elsewhere. I would suspect that this probably was true in the past as well. Just as a somewhat neutral example, I may hold the view (learned from this forum) that belts don't go with waistcoats when wearing a PC, but if the catalogs keep showing them worn together, and kilt shops keep providing them with PC rental packages, then eventually this view may become the minority view, and so it goes, fashions change.

Best regards,

Jake