How and why did you get your first kilt?

[tpa]

My father had one, a lovely plain lovat one, which he used to wear mainly when we were on holiday in his home area on the West coast of Scotland, (we lived in the East). My parents thought I should have one too. At age 8 it became part of my school uniform.

[pushka]

Last year I was in Europe visiting family, and I booked my way there through London and planned a road-trip to Scotland, and a Bailey-Aussie-Uni-friend of mine came along - it was my first time in the U.K. and I was so excited~ I was thinking of just symbolically crossing the border and finding the nearest castle or something, but my friend pushed us all the way north to climb Ben-Nevis, which was amazing, and visit Eilean Donan Castle, which was also amazing~

While planning the trip, I was just thinking a lot for the first time how much I love kilts, and that I'd love to wear one - but I thought that only Scottish people were allowed to wear them ~

I got back home and found there is an Australian National Tartan (and read online that it's more about not wearing other people's tartans, rather than not being allowed to wear a kilt - and some Scottish people also don't think tartan wearing should be polieced ~ /also/ the modern kilt was invented by an English Quaker from Lancashire named Thomas Rawlinson some time in the 1720s. //also// people wear kilts in Ireland, it's not exclusively in Scotland~ )

I got some Au. national tartan and did a bunch of research - making an amateur unorthodox modern variant of a kilt for myself ~ I finished most of it really quickly and then procrastinated - doing nothing until about 6 months ago - and have worn it pretty much every day whenever I'm out-side of work including travelling visiting family again kilted for 1 month ~

Scotland and kilt photos ~

https://photos.app.goo.gl/jH03zwTC9iF6lYrR2

[GMan]

Mine was because of my heritage. Once I wore it around with all the positive responses, and the comfort level had me hooked.

[CollinMacD]

My very first kilt was when I was about 5 years old, from my Grandfather. He was born in St. Andrews, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, migrated with his wife, also born in Nova Scotia, to Boston. He bought it during a visit at the Highland Games around 1955, it was a MacDonald tartan. Got a photograph done in it and of course was one of my Grandfathers favorite photo, I was the only grandson of four that had the kilt. My mother being French Canadian, did not like the kilt, after the photo had it made into a one piece romper shorts.... My father was so mad, well needless to say, never knew what happened to the shorts. My mother really never took part in my Scottish side celebrations or parties, father took me to them, left my sister at home. To this day, I am the Scottish one, my sister could care less, all French. I enjoyed my Scottish roots so much more then the French Canuck side....not interested at all of my Mother's family.

Then, a long dry spell....life went on, and kilts were just not in the cards. Although my family celebrated Scottish Holidays, only my Aunts wore kilts, more like long skirts during the Christmas Holidays. But what was kind of funny, I always had a small swatch of MacDonald dress tartan, and of course I always had a tie, that I normally wore during Christmas.
So it was not until last year,2016, after I started working on my families genealogy, discovering my family ancestors and their story, I felt a strong tie, and needed to display my family heritage, as learning so much about my ancestors, I was so proud of their heritage, especially learning of their direct ties to the Jacobite Uprisings.

Now I own three MacDonald Clanranald 16 Oz Kilts, two Philabags, two Great Kilts, (for my Jacobite Impression, living history, and on sport kilt, (US Coast Guard Tartan). Love them all, have some additional material to make another one, and will get a really nice 13 Oz, US Coast Guard Tartan next year. Love wearing my kilts.

[Terry Searl]

I had often rented a Kilted outfit for weddings etc and found a kilt to be extremely comfortable to wear and made me feel very good wearing it.
My Step mother, a lady of Scottish decent and with strong familial ties to the Auld Sod, liked to see me in a kilt and on the occasion of her 100th birthday she said she wanted me to have my own attire.
My heritage is Irish, both grand parents on both sides, and for my first ever kilt, there were four tartans I was considering, two county tartans from Ireland, An Armstrong tartan, my step mothers family, and the Canadian Maple Leaf tartan.
I wanted the kilt to be more closely related to me as well as to my step mother. I was born in Victoria BC and my step mother lived there for almost 70 years. I went to Freedom Kilts in Victoria, and told them my story and it was suggested Victoria, City of Gardens might be an appropriate tartan, it was and is, a beautiful tartan to me, that both I and my step mother could relate to. It was also suggested that a dark charcoal grey, kilt cut day wear jacket and waist coat might be a good choice as I could wear it on less formal occasions......very good advice indeed.
Special effort was made to have the kilt, jacket and waist coat built on time for the 100th birthday celebration and you might say I was the "Beaux of the Ball"....... My step mother's smile said it all

[hector]

Beautiful pictures! Thank you for sharing.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/jH03zwTC9iF6lYrR2[/QUOTE]

[David Dubh]

(My parents moved to Canada in 1965 from Scotland, my mum was pregnant with me at the time.) My granny ( mums mum) would send over a royal Stewart kilt almost yearly for me, I wore them through to grade 2. When dad had a sabbatical leave we lived in Scotland for 3-4 months and my parents bought me an off the peg Dress Gordon kilt from Lawries on the argyle arcade in Glasgow I was 11 at that time. When my sister was married dad went to Scotland and bought his kilt to walk her down the aisle and I rented one. I bought my first as an adult in 2005 that I wore to my daughters graduation and weddings since then.
That dress Gordon kilt will go to my grandsons when they are old enough
Cheers

[The Q]

One of My sailing clubs held it's first ever Burns night, the dress code was Smart with tartan....
Not having anything in tartan I did a search online and found a tartan waistcoat which did the first year. A couple of club members wore kilts. Before the search I had only known of hand made Kilts which were way out of my price range. However I had noticed cheap kilts online, bought one and wore that at our next club dinner. That went well, so I've now got another cheap Pakistan kilt and more recently a ex-hire woollen kilt, all in different family tartans.

The club Burns night has proved very popular and there are an increasing amount of kilts and trews being worn.

Shortly I qualify for My Royal Air Force pension, some of that will be going towards a Hand made RAF tartan kilt....

[OC Richard]

I love all these stories from you fellows in Scotland and the Scottish diaspora who began kiltwearing as a child.

I don't have anything that interesting.

In 1975 I got my first set of pipes, ordered from Scottish Shopper in Seattle. There was no Scottish community around so I was on my own.

That's the "why" of getting a kilt: a piper needs a kilt!

The "how" was unusual. We had that hillbilly "make do" attitude, a reluctance to pay for something that you can make yourself. So I went down to a local fabric shop and bought some plaid wool and my Grandmother made my first kilt. We had never seen one in person and weren't all that sure how they were constructed, but the result wasn't all that bad.

I don't have that kilt, I have no idea what went with it. But the "tartan" looked like this as best I can recall:



I bought a tweed blazer at a thrift/charity shop and made my first kilt jacket. I put on the Argyll cuffs and all. Not too bad looking.

Then I bought a navy blue blazer and made a Full Dress doublet. The flaps, cuffs, collar, and shells were all handsewn by myself and put on the jacket. Not too bad either.

Then we bought some real Scottish-made tartan, MacDonald Of The Isles Hunting, and my Grandmother made my 2nd kilt.

I won an art contest around 1977 and with the money bought a real Feather Bonnet and dirk. I picked up vintage belts and a rather beat-up horsehair sporran which I spent much time cleaning and grooming.

Here I am around 1977 with my home-made doublet, kilt, and plaid:



(Lawrie pipes then, Lawrie pipes now!)

Naturally starting out with a Utilikilt wasn't an option for me or for most of the old-time kiltwearers here, they being a recent invention.

[Moses]

The why first. My mother said the first time I heard the pipes I started marching, lol - so it's in the blood literally and figuratively. In wanting to represent her heritage I looked into it a long time ago and really liked kilts and wanted one.

The how. I kept putting it off because I had suits over the years and generally viewed a kilt as being basically the same attire. I thought it would be too expensive for everything I wanted so I set my sights on losing some weight and eventually rewarding myself. Also over the years I saw kilts wore more casually - and not casual as in a costume. So finally I just saw a great deal on a cheap kilt at our St. Andrew's society highland games and finally just pulled the trigger. So I don't have everything but now have at least a kilt I can wear very casually.