Maybe I'm wrong, maybe the Kilt isn't 'just clothes'.

[Chirs]

Now that we're well and truly into the realisation that we're all of 'mixed blood', let's stir it up a bit.

One of my favourite things to tell 'racial enthusiasts' is that, if you're of European extraction, your ancestors are probably from India. It appears, from archeological records, that a large migration from the northern part of India happened some 10,000 years ago bringing the Aryan people to (what we today call) Europe. Prior to that it appears that the Aryans may have originated in the Middle East. The end result of the migration is: all of us Europeans are of Indian/Iranian extraction.

There is no chance that anyone is a pure anything. It doesn't exist. Those who make racial claims of any kind are making political statements and that is a horse of a different colour.

(It is entertaining to join those who chant "Aryan Power" with "Power to the Brown People".)

[CDNSushi]

I was approached by a kilting expert who informed me that I was NOT ALLOWED to wear a kilt unless I was Scottish. He also told me that he was Scottish and therefore knew this for a fact. Whereas I was English and didn't.

Hindsight is 20/20 but it would have been most entertaining, if you had just mustered the most sarcastically "proper" English accent you could (in the style of a most exaggerated Sherlock Holmes), and exclaimed: "By God, sir! You are correct! Quickly, to the constabulary! I must turn myself in at once!" ith:

Then again, that could just be my own perverse sense of schadenfreude talking here.

[jgcunningham]

Strauss was against removing the crotch rivet until he fell victim to it himself at a campfire. Ouch! Talk about learning a lesson the hard way.

[The Wizard of BC]

There is almost as much myth around blue jeans as there is around kilts.

Levi Strauss was not a tailor and never made a pair of blue jeans. There is also no evidence that he ever wore a pair. He ran a wholesale dry goods store in San Francisco. He opened his first store in 1858 which was 18 years after the California Gold Rush.

It was Jacob Davis who was a tailor who made and repaired the items which were called generically "overalls" and which we today call blue jeans. Overalls were commonly available but they were prone to wearing out. Jacob Davis was buying cloth from Strauss to repair overalls. Some of the first cloth was a hemp tent fabric but it chafed. Strauss got a hold of some cotton denim and sold it to Davis. It was Davis who came up with the idea of reinforcing the weaker denim fabric at the stress points with rivets. He called these "Riveted Overalls"
Davis had no money to take out a patent and go into production so he approached merchant Strauss.

Manufacturing of "Levi Strauss & Co's Riveted Overalls" began in 1873.

The design of Levi Strauss jeans has be changed many times even though the company marketing implies otherwise. What the marketing actually says is that the "label design" has never changed.

[Father Bill]

There is almost as much myth around blue jeans as there is around kilts.

Levi Strauss was not a tailor and never made a pair of blue jeans. There is also no evidence that he ever wore a pair. He ran a wholesale dry goods store in San Francisco. He opened his first store in 1858 which was 18 years after the California Gold Rush.

It was Jacob Davis who was a tailor who made and repaired the items which were called generically "overalls" and which we today call blue jeans. Overalls were commonly available but they were prone to wearing out. Jacob Davis was buying cloth from Strauss to repair overalls. Some of the first cloth was a hemp tent fabric but it chafed. Strauss got a hold of some cotton denim and sold it to Davis. It was Davis who came up with the idea of reinforcing the weaker denim fabric at the stress points with rivets. He called these "Riveted Overalls"
Davis had no money to take out a patent and go into production so he approached merchant Strauss.

Manufacturing of "Levi Strauss & Co's Riveted Overalls" began in 1873.

The design of Levi Strauss jeans has be changed many times even though the company marketing implies otherwise. What the marketing actually says is that the "label design" has never changed.

Cool!

[pauljsharp]

I have been reading this thread with a lot of interest. I am an American of mixed descent of which two of my many lines is Scottish (others include English, French and Danish.) I wear the kilt as an homage to those Scottish ancestors and as a source of pride for that part of my family history. I would wear my kilt more often but as I have said in previous threads it is impractical with my profession and my wife does not enjoy the attention (negative and positive,) that it brings when we are out.

I wonder what the Scottish nationals of this forum think of men like myself... When I wear the kilt I try to be respectful and follow the unspoken rules, similar to when I wear a suit and tie.

I lived in Southern England for a couple of years and knew a Scotsman from Fife quite well. I count him as one of my close friends. When he heard I was wearing the kilt upon my return back to the States he said (jokingly, knowing that a lot of truth is spoken in jest,) that I was silly for doing so as an American.

Jock and thescot, are we in situations like my own paying our ancestry and the Scottish Nationals a disservice or mockery?

[Jock Scot]

I have been reading this thread with a lot of interest. I am an American of mixed descent of which two of my many lines is Scottish (others include English, French and Danish.) I wear the kilt as an homage to those Scottish ancestors and as a source of pride for that part of my family history. I would wear my kilt more often but as I have said in previous threads it is impractical with my profession and my wife does not enjoy the attention (negative and positive,) that it brings when we are out.

I wonder what the Scottish nationals of this forum think of men like myself... When I wear the kilt I try to be respectful and follow the unspoken rules, similar to when I wear a suit and tie.

I lived in Southern England for a couple of years and knew a Scotsman from Fife quite well. I count him as one of my close friends. When he heard I was wearing the kilt upon my return back to the States he said (jokingly, knowing that a lot of truth is spoken in jest,) that I was silly for doing so as an American.

Jock and thescot, are we in situations like my own paying our ancestry and the Scottish Nationals a disservice or mockery?

I answer this question with the greatest of respect to all non Scots.

No, on the whole, none of you are intentionally paying your ancestry and the Scots a disservice or mocking them.Some of the ways the kilt is worn and the "I can wear what I like" attitude does wrankle though.

Now what I , your friend you mention and other Scots really cannot fathom is this. You are Americans, who make great play of your independence--quite rightly----so be Americans. Canadians, Australians, Dutch, German, Russian, French, English, Irish,or Wherever, they are all proud nations in their own right with a mixture of cultures and blood that go into the pedigrees of their particular nation-----just like Scotland. But your are not, however hard you try, Scottish. So why not represent your own proud nation?

Live in Scotland with a British passport, pay British taxes, shed your blood wearing a British uniform(I am not forgetting the blood spilt belonging to many nations in the many joint causes)contribute to Scotlands wellbeing and do that for a generation or two whilst not harking back(too often) to your old roots and then you are getting close to being a Scot. The same goes for any nation.Of course taken out of context this last paragraph is the stuff of major nationalist strife and I don't intend it to be.

If you delve into my pedigree, I have English, Norman, German, Viking, Scots, plus a few more, blood tracing through my veins. So a good mixture, in fact just like the rest of you and just like many of you, I try on occasion to remember my roots, but do I dress up as a Viking, a Norman knight, A German? No I don't. Why? Because I am a Scot!

However we all have a past and quite rightly some of us wish celebrate our ancestors and their achievements, but the way it is done outwith Scotland is not generally understood by the Scots; it appears to be all rather intense and rather "over the top" to us and it is this, I think, that we find difficult to comprehend.As we see it, why dress up as a Scot---play being a Scot---when you are not?

[CDNSushi]

As we see it, why dress up as a Scot---play being a Scot---when you are not?

Like everything, I suppose there are many ways to look at something. That is certainly one way. A Scot may look out and see foreigners who are playing at being Scots, but I guess I don't see that, necessarily. I think I see it from another angle.

First, the Scottish diaspora has made it so that Scots have not only settled into all the corners of the earth, but they've integrated their culture (which includes the national dress) in with the local culture to the point that it holds the same status. In Canada, I grew up around enough pipe bands and events where kilt-wearing were both represented not as Scottish, but as CANADIAN! When I attended a parade, it never crossed my mind that the pipe band might be Scottish, or imported from Scotland. No, it was a Canadian pipe band at a Canadian parade. When I saw a funeral with a piper, I never assumed that it must have been a Scot that died, but much more likely, an important Canadian... So as far as that goes, for me the kilt represents a Canadian garment as much as it does a Scottish one, so if someone were to ask me: "Why don't you represent your own proud nation?" I feel that I could reply: "I am!"

The best analogy I can give is kind of like when I see a Honda Civic or an Acura, I don't see an import... I see a domestic model, as it was assembled in Canada, by the Canadian manufacturing division of Honda, for use in Canada by Canadians.

Second, as far as cultural identity (and the clothing/national costume thereof), let me just say that if my own heritage (Czech) had a kilt-like garment, I would probably be all over it. I see my own kilt-wearing as a fashion choice and comfort issue, which I am glad to borrow from the Scots. Just like the Japanese know a good thing when they see it, this is the land of misappropriated cultural elements. The Japanese have become experts at taking all the best of what each country and culture has to offer, and make it uniquely Japanese, to the point of unrecognizability from the original. Japanese curry is nothing like Indian curry, Japanese kimchi is nothing like Korean kimchi, and J-pop music is nothing like American pop music... And yet, they happily took what they thought was something worthwhile. In the same light, I've also taken the sarong from the Sri Lankans, the Dhoti from the Indians and the kikoi from the Kenyans.

I am not ashamed of being Canadian, nor of being Czech... But rather, I don't feel that I should put on cultural blinders. When you come to my house for a BBQ, you'll probably see me in traditional Japanese garb. Why? Why not Canadian or Czech garb? Because I wear what makes me comfortable and what I think looks good, and what serves the function I'm looking for which I think is very different from the "I wear what I like" attitude. To me that would imply a lack of good reason...

So for any Scot who would look at me and assume that I were wearing his country's national costume because I wanted to pretend to be Scottish, he would be dead wrong, and I would encourage such a person to consider some other possible reasons behind it. ith:

[Coastie]

In Canada, I grew up around enough pipe bands and events where kilt-wearing were both represented not as Scottish, but as CANADIAN! When I attended a parade, it never crossed my mind that the pipe band might be Scottish, or imported from Scotland.

I had heard the pipes a time or two growing up but my first experience with an actual in person piper was the piper for a unit from the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery that came down with his unit to train with the 82nd Airborne Artillery. Seeing them marching down Gruber (a road at Fort Bragg) with a piper leading the way was one of the coolest things I saw while in the Army.

[DubintheDam]

If you spend your summer holiday in the West of Ireland and frequent a local pub with session music on the go, you will find the band is usually made-up of a few Germans, a couple of Irishmen and Englishman.

Irish traditional music today is better than it has ever been due to this cultural mixing bowl, the Trans-Altantic sessions (both Irish and Scottish) recordings are a prime example as are their corresponding sales. Folk music is not and has never been rooted in ye ol' traditions but has always evolved with people and times.

Although Scottish music has it's own distinct style, many are in fact revived songs that have been preserved in Ireland only to return home so to speak. I like to think that the Irish kept the music alive while the Scots kept the dress alive.

The habit of kilt wearing in 'modern' times as most of us know is in large part due to the love of the Highlands as embodied by Queen Victoria (English/German) and the ensuing Victorian revival in all things Highland.

National traditions today extend far beyond borders and birthplace. Just as levels of individual expression play a more important part in all societies, so is it that costumes become a greater resource for making an individual statement and/or style. The modern fashion kilt of the recent decade is here to stay, wear it because you gay or you're a punk or just like to be different, it doesn't really matter.

Are we to say only Irish people can play Irish music, or only black people can play Jazz, or only Italians can eat pasta and drive Vespa's!

To be a Scot and say, "the kilt is only for Scots" is frankly unpatriotic.
For a Scot to say, "look at how the kilt is worn today and has increased in popularity around the world" is to be proud of this Scottish tradition.

Nothing in this world can be 'owned' and everything can be shared.