This forum has changed me...

[BoldHighlander]

It's why you see pipe band people walking around Games in partial uniform: maybe wearing their hose and ghillies but with shorts, the hated kilt not put on until the moment the band has to play, and removed instantly afterwards.

Richard, I have also noticed this with the Highland dance competitors as well (at least around here)...wearing bits & pieces but eschewing the kilt

This forum has changed me. It has got me to appreciate and value Highland Dress more, and has got me to wear it at times when I'm not required to wear it.

I've always appreciated Highland dress, but I think this forum over the years has taught me to value even more the traditions behind it (a great big thank you to gentlemen such as Jock Scot, MacMillan of Rathdown, & Sandy aka JSFMACLJR; and more recently Rex aka ThistleDown, & Kyle aka Creagdhubh for the 'lessons')

Not a piper, but I too am glad that this is such a great place to appreciate what we have.

Hear! Hear!

[OC Richard]

I think for me there is a point(s) of maturity, for lack of a better word, and peace when the things "I have to do" become the things "I want to do".

Thanks for that wise and thoughtful post... it gives me some stuff to ponder over.

Yes the cellist and the tux! It's the same attitude: the tux and the kilt are your "gig suit", your work clothes, that which must be worn while on the job.
You don't see professional orchestral musicians hanging out in their tuxes, and you don't see professional pipers hanging out in their kilts.

But Highland Dress is much more than a "gig suit" to me, and always has been.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts.

[dfmacliam]

Thanks for this thread.... It gives one much to think about... Why do we wear the kilt... Because we want to... and because it's a reminder of who we are/were/ and yet to be.

[wildrover]

I dare you to wear a UK to band practice .

[OC Richard]

I dare you to wear a UK to band practice .

I don't think I'll take you up on that dare. The reaction of most of the mainstream serious pipe band people to UKs has been rather hostile.

[auld argonian]

I don't think I'll take you up on that dare. The reaction of most of the mainstream serious pipe band people to UKs has been rather hostile.

But is because they are truly offended or because they think that it is expected of them to be offended? I mean, of what consequence to them is the wearing of a UK? Are they just trying to say, "this is a real kilt, yours is a phoney kilt"? or what? They can't just say, "different strokes for different folks" and be done with it?

So you got people who only want to wear a kilt when they're competing and seem to regard it as a necessary evil and they still want to posture as the "defenders of the faith" and hold contemporary kilt wearers as beneath their contempt because they aren't wearing "real" kilts?

Paging Dr. Freud, Dr. Adler, Dr. Jung...paging Dr. Freud...

Best

AA

[Alan H]

I'm not a piper, either but it's absolutely true that X Marks the Scot has had a significant and positive effect in my life.

[wildrover]

I'm not a piper, either but it's absolutely true that X Marks the Scot has had a significant and positive effect in my life.

x2. This group is full of really good people. I don't know how you put up with me .

I think the visceral reaction you'd get by wearing a kilt of any sort to band practice would be from the "tryhard" attitude it projected, since everybody there already knows you have a kilt. Sorta like something I read about surgeons' cuffs on suits (I didn't know what they were, always wondered about the non-functional buttons, so I looked it up), and people who wanted to leave one button undone to advertise that they had surgeons' cuffs

However...I think it would be hilarious, just to yank everyone's chain a little ...but then, I am never above a bit of chain yanking !

-Sean

[Hothir Ethelnor]

I don't think I'll take you up on that dare. The reaction of most of the mainstream serious pipe band people to UKs has been rather hostile.

Well the Bass drummer for the nearest band to me wears a UK to practice but I am guessing they aren't mainstream. They are a grade 3 competition band though. Unfortunately they are an hour and twenty minutes away which means I am still pretty much self taught with a few pointers here and there...

I have really benefited from X-marks as well. It was my participation here that encouraged me to go full-time kilted and I pretty much still am.

[OC Richard]

The first time I ever saw a Ukilt was at their booth at one of our local Highland Games. I thought they were interesting and kinda cool.

I took it as a clever twist on the traditional kilt.

I was somewhat surprised by the universal strong negative reaction to them from the Pipe Band scene. I wasn't so surprised by the reaction itself, but rather by the strength of the reaction. I couldn't, and still can't, figure out why the negativity is so strongly felt.

I suggested that one day a Pipe Band might well show up for a competition in matching Ukilts, and my notion was laughed at.

It's so odd: the Pipe Band people's love-hate relationship with the kilt. They hate wearing it, and say that they would much rather compete in jeans if they could. But at the same time they take great pride in being well turned-out for competition and for performances and are staunch defenders of what they view as tradition.