The history of the newer style Kilts is tied very closely to this forum.

The first person I know of to break the boundaries of three decades of "Tradition" was Howie Nickelsby of 21st Century Kilts. Howie comes from a family of Full Traditional Kiltmakers. (His father is Jeffery (Tailor)). He began making Traditional Hand-sewn Kilts in non-traditional fabrics such as silver lame and Camouflage.

At about the same time Terry Vargas discovered Marton Mills who were experimenting by weaving Tartan from a fabric that is a blend of Polyester and Rayon. Today we call that fabric P/V. Terry started his company "Bear Kilts" and began to distribute them from his house to others.
Bear Kilts took the new Tartan fabric and created a whole new style of Kilt that we today call "the Pub Style Kilt". He was not a trained Kiltmaker so was not bound by 'the rules' and used the sort of construction found in blue jeans with a waistband and a triangular placket in the back where he would attach the pleats.

A group of guys in Philadelphia who liked to wear Kilts to pubs formed a partnership and would sell Bear Kilts out of the trunk of their car. Two members of this partnership who's names you will recognize were Rocky Roeger and Jimmy Carbomb.
These guys couldn't sew either but business was so good they brought on another member to teach them to sew their own Kilts. With the addition of Kelly Stewart USA Kilts was born.

With this new style of Kilt that was machine washable a niche market opened. Highland Games Athletes have always been required to compete in the Kilt. An ultra-simple, machine washable, and very inexpensive Kilt seemed to be a god send to them. Thus Sport Kilts was started in Los Angeles. This started the "Athletic Style Kilt". A Kilt taken to it's least common denominator. Tartan fabric, pleats and not much else. Inexpensive enough to smear with rosin, rip to shreds, and replace when necessary.

In Seattle an enterprising young man was looking for a way to make some money to renovate some double-decker buses for his traveling circus. Steven Viellagas came up with a garment reminiscent of a pair of cargo shorts without a crotch. In just the first couple of days he met a business woman who took his idea, and his passion, and formed the Utilikilts Company. Together they created a marketing plan using volunteers willing to sell their product at Highland Games, Pride Festivals and sci-fi conventions. Sheer genius.

With the rules broken by Howie at 21st Century Kilts, the new machine washable Tartan fabrics from Bear and USA Kilts and the MUG of Utilikilts the world opened up for people like myself to go wild.

Buzz Kidder was a retired Highland Athlete who blended the concept of the Sport Kilt and the Utilikilt.

I started using solid colored Poly/Cotton fabrics like those found in "Dockers" pants and trying to get the look and swish of a Traditional Kilt and the Contemporary Style Kilt was born.

And this forum was where we all came together to talk about this thing we call the Kilt.
There had been on-line forums before where the wearing of the Kilt was discussed. But one man wanted to talk about the Kilt as acceptable male clothing without being taken as a cross-dresser.

Hamish Bicknel had worn the Kilt while performing as a Highland Dancer and knew how a Kilt should be worn and with what accessories and how to do it and not look like he was trying to dress like a woman. Hamish is an untiring advocate of the Kilt as acceptable male fashion. In the beginning he frequented a forum called "Tom's Cafe" but with the death of Tom that forum became the cross-dressers hangout. So a new forum arose called "Bravehearts". The Bravehearts forum used an older bulletin board style that for many is hard to read and follow a conversation when it begins to be more than a few posts long. But the cross-dressers found that forum and began to use it as a platform too.

A young kid who was selling t-shirts at Highland Games began to take photos of some of the people who would wrap themselves in a tablecloth, paint their faces blue and stride around the Games. He began to post some of these photos on the web and talk about them.
Hank Hanna was using an easier forum format and soon X Marks the Scot.com began to grow. It was the stated intent of the forum that Kilts and only Kilts was the topic. It was this well stated and enforced intent that drew Hamish and others who wanted to talk about Kilts as acceptable and respectable male garments. Soon Dr. Nick Fiddes of Scotweb became the first to offer Kilts and Highland wear over the internet. Not long after Bear Kilts, USA Kilts, and Freedom Kilts became advertisers to promote our product, the site, and pay for its upkeep.

So there you have it. A nutshell history of the newer types and styles of Kilt. I didn't want to make it sound like a History Lesson so I left dates out and simplified some details. But you get the jist of the idea.