US Campaign Ribbons

[Bruce Scott]

What Jock Scot was referring to was the habit of some of the kilt-wearing population in the United States to wear service ribbons, medals, training badges, etc. on civilian attire at Highland Games. These are not only seen on jackets and short sleeve shirts, but also on Prince Charlie coatees being worn by attendees at the games, something one does not see (at least I've never seen it) at Games held in Scotland.

Maybe? This is what he said:

I have had it on good authority that the British definition of "dress" is different to US "dress". So to a Brit a suit is not "dress" to a Brit "dress" would start with formal "morning dress", or, morning suit(kilt, black barathea, silver buttons,Argyll) and is formal day wear. In most cases, to a Brit, "dress" starts with black tie dinner jacket(tux) or in Highland terms a PC jacket and accoutrements and then on up the
scale. I mention all this so that there should be no confusion between the two definitions of the word "dress". So to us Brits you Americans wearing medals or ribbons with civilian day wear does look out of place.I suppose the mixing of cultures can be confusing, on occasion.

I cannot presume to know exactly what he was thinking but clearly both kilted and trousered forms of dress are discussed and medals are most definitely worn on civilian day wear in Britain. That said, I agree that it would be extremely unlikely to see medals worn to events such as Highland games in Scotland. The wearing of campaign medals and awards with civilian day wear is generallly only to occasions such as Remembrance Day and battle commemorations.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Maybe? This is what he said:

I have had it on good authority that the British definition of "dress" is different to US "dress". So to a Brit a suit is not "dress" to a Brit "dress" would start with formal "morning dress", or, morning suit(kilt, black barathea, silver buttons,Argyll) and is formal day wear. In most cases, to a Brit, "dress" starts with black tie dinner jacket(tux) or in Highland terms a PC jacket and accoutrements and then on up the
scale. I mention all this so that there should be no confusion between the two definitions of the word "dress". So to us Brits you Americans wearing medals or ribbons with civilian day wear does look out of place.I suppose the mixing of cultures can be confusing, on occasion.

I cannot presume to know exactly what he was thinking but clearly both kilted and trousered forms of dress are discussed and medals are most definitely worn on civilian day wear in Britain. That said, I agree that it would be extremely unlikely to see medals worn to events such as Highland games in Scotland. The wearing of campaign medals and awards with civilian day wear is generallly only to occasions such as Remembrance Day and battle commemorations.

What Jock Scot is clearly saying is this: The wearing of medals on civilian attire, other than when requested to do so by the host or organizer of the event being attended, looks out of place. I would go one step farther and say: Not only does it look out of place, it is out of place.

It's not about the mixing of cultures. Right is right, and wrong is wrong. Kilted or in cowboy boots.