untraditional traditions

[ThistleDown]

Ya, that's basically what Jock suggested to me in the Panama hat. I only had a straw hat, sounds a bit like Todd's description, and Jock seemed to be just fine with my picture. I was wearing a polo shirt.

I've seen MOR post that he wears a Panama hat, too, so I guess it's just fine to the Scottish eye.





Both of my grandfathers wor bolo ties from time to time, but it's the Western shirts that really stood out.

No, the Panama hat does not have universal Scottish appeal. Nor does the polo shirt. You wished to wear them with Highland attire, Ted, and some of us we agreed it was acceptable for whatever reasons. Now that you have rejected Highland dress you must needs choose your head dress to suit whatever else you are wearing.

What are you wearing these days?

[Bugbear]

No, the Panama hat does not have universal Scottish appeal. Nor does the polo shirt. You wished to wear them with Highland attire, Ted, and some of us wanted you to be comfortable so we agreed it was acceptable. Now that you have rejected Highland dress you must needs choose your head dress to suit whatever else you are wearing.

What are you wearing these days?

All the better.

And I am most often wearing overalls to work in mud, soil and compost now a days; truely cactus kicking.

* I should say, "literally kicking cactus," rather than "truly," as I grow prickly pears and other cacti.

[macwilkin]

To pick up further on David's post. One of the points of this thread was to explore the possibility of a new American tradition of wearing the kilt.

I fully understand that western wear is regional and no doubt considered a bit 'hick' by East Coast sophisticates, (Taylor Swift must be an embarrassment) but it is a recognizably American style albeit not universal.

I would bet there a lot of Canadians in the Prairie provinces who would disagree with your assumption that western wear is only an "American" style.

And just to point out my aforementioned reference to my father, who never wore a western shirt or jacket in his life: my great-uncle, who was a bona fide cowboy from New Mexico, never wore such things either -- he would classified such garments as those belonging to a "drugstore cowboy" or "dude wrangler*" -- "all hat and no cattle".

*He had his boots outside his britches;
They was made of leather green and red,
His shirt was of a dozen colors,
Loud enough to wake the dead.

Around his neck he had a 'kerchief,
Knotted through a silver ring;
I swear to Gawd he had a wrist-watch,
Who ever heard of such a thing.

-- The Dude Wrangler by Gail Gardner

So it's not just an "East v. West" thing.

T.

[Bugbear]

Oddly, Tod, many of the ranchers in New Mexico when I was growing up, wore the shirts with the two brest pockets, usually pearl looking buttons, and a pattern or design of some sort, no wild colors. It seemed pretty common.

Don't see how that type of shirt would go well with a kilt.


* and since I no longer wear kilts, I will bow out of the discussion.

[CMcG]

Outside the Highlands, could untraditional be a new tradition?
<snip>

<snip> One of the points of this thread was to explore the possibility of a new American tradition of wearing the kilt.

Well, not just potential new American traditions. I'd also like to read ruminations from my fellow Canadians, or anyone else's observations about how the kilt is worn outside the Highlands. People are most likely to discuss their immediate experience and we do have a lot of members from the U.S.....

[xman]

breaking with the 'traditional' is not only for 'Americans'. From Howie Nicholsby's site:

[xman]

*He had his boots outside his britches;
They was made of leather green and red,
His shirt was of a dozen colors,
Loud enough to wake the dead.

Around his neck he had a 'kerchief,
Knotted through a silver ring;
I swear to Gawd he had a wrist-watch,
Who ever heard of such a thing.

-- The Dude Wrangler by Gail Gardner

So it's not just an "East v. West" thing.

Puts me in mind of what Biondello says in act 3, scene 2 of The Taming of the Shrew.

"Why, Petruchio is coming in a new hat and an old
jerkin, a pair of old breeches thrice turned, a pair
of boots that have been candle-cases, one buckled,
another laced, an old rusty sword ta'en out of the
town-armory, with a broken hilt, and chapeless;
with two broken points: his horse hipped with an
old mothy saddle and stirrups of no kindred;
besides, possessed with the glanders and like to mose
in the chine; troubled with the lampass, infected
with the fashions, full of wingdalls, sped with
spavins, rayed with yellows, past cure of the fives,
stark spoiled with the staggers, begnawn with the
bots, swayed in the back and shoulder-shotten;
near-legged before and with, a half-chequed bit
and a head-stall of sheeps leather which, being
restrained to keep him from stumbling, hath been
often burst and now repaired with knots; one girth
six time pieced and a woman's crupper of velure,
which hath two letters for her name fairly set down
in studs, and here and there pieced with packthread."

[Good Egg]

What a waste of decent tailoring. The rules of the house prohibit me from using the appropriate word to describe the designer and the wearer; suffice it to say that those who are up on their rhyming slang will follow through from 'berk'.

[auld argonian]

Well, I 'm enjoying this whole discussion...

But i will bring up one aspect of the wearing of nontraditonal headgear...and I have to make this consideration...fair skinned, red headed people out in the sun at gatherings! The panama hats may not be kosher but we've already had one outdoors enthusiast in my family treated for the beginnings of skin cancer on his face and forehead.

So if you spot me at the games with a non-traditional brim on...it might look odd but it beats topical chemotherapy.

I hope that us "colonials" will get cut a little slack on that one...

Best

AA

[Jock Scot]

Well, I 'm enjoying this whole discussion...

But i will bring up one aspect of the wearing of nontraditonal headgear...and I have to make this consideration...fair skinned, red headed people out in the sun at gatherings! The panama hats may not be kosher but we've already had one outdoors enthusiast in my family treated for the beginnings of skin cancer on his face and forehead.

So if you spot me at the games with a non-traditional brim on...it might look odd but it beats topical chemotherapy.

I hope that us "colonials" will get cut a little slack on that one...

Best

AA

Sun? Sun? What is this sun thing? The sun is not too much of a problem over here.

I think any sensible Scot, armed with the knowledge that we have these days about the damage that too much sun can do to our skin will readily accept the need for a sensible hat.