Why traditional?

[IsaacW]

Many comments and discussions that I have read here over the last few weeks have been sitting upon my brain. Ultimately it comes back to why I choose to "kilt up" in a more traditional way. I think I have most of my thoughts together and would like to attempt to get them out in, hopefully, an understandable fashion.

1.) First, to me traditional is not historic. I have heard a lot of comments that folks dressing in "THCD" are trying to emulate those in photos of the 1920s. While many kilt wearers of the 1920s do look like this, I would say that many kilt wearers are also dressing like this in Scotland today. This is the thing about "National Dress" and "folk costume." Elements of historic dress are somewhat freeze framed, embellished, romanticized, etc. and become this attire. This can be seen in the "national/traditional" clothing of many countries (maybe I need to wear my lederhosen and trachten apparel tonight ;-) ). Elements also change over time, but do not necessarily follow the changes in fashion. While many wear kilts simply as another lower-body garment, I wear it with thoughts toward the history and symbolism of the garment and its connection to Scotland. Tradition is simply pulling elements of the past forward in continuity.

2.) This leads to the idea that traditional dress is "too dressy." I think this is a misunderstanding and as other "THCD" posts show; shirtsleeves, no tie, jumpers, and a more casual look CAN be "traditional." Also, as earlier mentioned, these fashions do originate in a time period that was a bit more "dressy" than our casual society today. Beyond that, I personally tend to dress up more than my peers on a daily basis. For work, I wear a tie 5 days of the week. When out and about, I would rather dress more than not. This is just my preference (and for work, my opinion that if you want to be treated as a professional, you must dress as one).

3.) I hear that if dressing "traditional" I am trying to emulate a laird. Perhaps this is so. Looking at fashion history, it is normally the aristocracy and the elite that influence the bulk of fashion. If one wears anything fashionable, they are likely emulating the elite. Even in the United States this is the case. While most Americans like to think we have no aristocracy and that we are all individuals, free upon ourselves; the reality is that most people's fashion is set and influenced by the Entertainment Industry, the Fashion Industry elite, Athletes, and a variety of other "famous" people.

4.) Finally, to a great degree... my highland apparel is just a kilted reflection of my normal attire. Many folks that do not understand "traditional" highland attire, simply state that you should wear the kilt as you do pants. In many ways, this is what I do. Although wearing the kilt means many things to me (some alluded to above and hence why I wear a kilt instead of pants); I tend to dress a lot like this in common attire/Saxon dress. My favorite jacket is a Harris Tweed that a friend of my grandfather gave me when I was 18 (I am wearing it today, 20 years later). I have a number of other jackets much like this. I wear ties all week. When I wear a shirt and tie, I prefer to have a waistcoat or jumper on as well (just my aesthetics). I like wearing brogues and often wear striped or argyle socks. These are the looks that I tend to enjoy and are my personal likes. I also think they are rather "classic" and need not be changed every year or so to follow the fickleness of fashion. Here are a few images I found in the computer of me at work over the past year or so...

[Father Bill]

Hi Isaac.

The ideas you ponder are probably common to many of us, self included. In 1971 - 72 I was one of two student teachers who actually wore a jacket and tie to class every day for the whole year, and I continued to do so for the years in which I taught. It's usually referred to as "dressing better," or a "higher level" of dress, which can be misleading. It's not about putting ourselves up any ladder, it's about taking a different kind of care in our daily preparations.

The whole discussion of "what 'traditional' means" has gone on here at XMarks for a very long time, and while it's useful, it's also sometimes confusing, and I know that there are even occasional tensions between those who prefer one mode or the other, and sometimes a sharp word or two. I certainly follow certain sub-fora more closely than others simply because they interest me more. If I can be blamed for that, then I can be blamed for almost anything!

The one thing that perhaps I do a wee bit differently, reading between your lines, is that I'm willing to wear something more casual above the waist if the weather demands it and, providing that I'm not attending a more formal occasion.

Good manners demand not that you dress either "up" or "down" but rather that you dress to fit in - something that's darned difficult with a kilt in some situations!

Good thinking, and an interesting post!

[Jock Scot]

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-----Good manners demand not that you dress either "up" or "down" but rather that you dress to fit in - something that's darned difficult with a kilt in some situations!

Good thinking, and an interesting post!

Thank you Bill for giving me a lead in to answering the very good question. I was struggling there for a while.

Yes Bill has it dead right when he brings up the "demands of good manners", but unlike him I have absolutely no problem moving from, say smart kilt attire to smart lounge suits, or from Black tie kilt attire to a dinner jacket.

I wear a tie for most things, I wear a tweed jacket often with trousers-- Chords mostly, I wear if the occasion requires it a smart dark grey suit, I wear a tweed three piece shooting suit(plus 4's) to shoot in and always with a tie, I usually fish wearing a tie and depending who with and where, I often wear a tweed shooting suit to fish. I can choose to wear a morning suit if appropriate and I can wear a dinner jacket and black tie if required and if really necessary I could come up with a white tie outfit too. I can even do no tie and shirt sleeves too. And------

AND I can do all of that in appropriate kilt attire too. I am not boasting or anything like that, its what I have done one way or another, all my life. Its as simple as, do I wear the kilt or not? After that, I don the appropriate attire, without a second thought.

What absolutely mystifies me are some members here and others that I have seen with my own eyes, who dress up to the nines in tweed jacket, tweed waistcoat, 8 yards heavy weight wool tartan, wool hose and topped off with a woollen bonnet in 90 degree temperatures-----no wonder they need a cromach to hold them up! I do wonder if common sense has fallen foul of wanting to dress the part?

What seems to be missing for some, not all, is the judgement, confidence and discretion when making dress decisions with kilt attire to fit the occasion and the weather. The end result is often sadly, an overdressed and almost cardboard cut-out example of traditional Highland Scots kilt attire and that is not traditional.

[Father Bill]

Umm Jock... I think I said that?

[Jock Scot]

Umm Jock... I think I said that?

Indeed you did Bill and you made the point so well that I thought I would strike while the iron was hot, so to speak and say it again!

[Father Bill]

You're the man, Jock!

[Tobus]

What absolutely mystifies me are some members here and others that I have seen with my own eyes, who dress up to the nines in tweed jacket, tweed waistcoat, 8 yards heavy weight wool tartan, wool hose and topped off with a woollen bonnet in 90 degree temperatures-----no wonder they need a cromach to hold them up! I do wonder if common sense has fallen foul of wanting to dress the part?

Those of us who live in warmer climes often struggle with this, Jock. If we were going to dress strictly for comfort and practical convenience all the time, we'd end up wearing flip-flops, Bermuda shorts, and loose Hawaiian style shirts like they do in South Florida. That's not really my thing, though, and never has been. Everyone, to some degree, sacrifices comfort for the sake of style or decorum. Casual and comfortable, in certain contexts, equals slovenly. Sadly, that slovenly trend is taking over our society.

90 degrees is blazing hot to someone from the UK. To a native Texan, it's a mildly warm day. Even when it's 100 degrees outdoors, my casual/comfortable dress is often boots, jeans, a denim or duck-cloth shirt, and a felt hat. We often talk about the "THCD" style originating in the early to mid 1900s, but if we take a look at traditional Texas style dress from the same era, it's very similar in many ways. Folks wore clothing that, by today's standards, would be uncomfortable and hot. They wore wool trousers, ties, vests & jackets, etc. Did their common sense fall afoul of wanting to dress the part too? No, it was just how they dressed to meet social expectations. And many still dress that way, at least in my part of Texas where cowboy culture is still very much a part of everyday life.

I guess what I'm saying is that you personally might recoil at the idea of wearing certain clothing on a 90 degree day, but to others it's not as much of an issue. Trust me when I say that an 8-yard kilt and woollen hose are much cooler than wearing boots and jeans in the Texas heat!

I do agree on the tweed waistcoat, jacket, and tie issue. Typically I will wear these to our Highland Games that are held in early April and November, when the temperature is very mild. This year some of us are planning on gathering in August, and it would indeed be foolish to wear such things in the worst part of summer. But I'm sure we will still choose to wear something that pays respect to THCD, rather than showing up in flip-flops and Bermuda shorts.

[Father Bill]

The comments about kilts and heat remind me of an interesting interchange that made me smile several summers ago. At our "Vacation Bible School" - a one week daytime activity at our small rural church, a retired teacher was leading sessions on a theme of "Children Praying Around the World." The nation of investigation that day was China, but I had worn my clergy tartan kilt with a grey clergy shirt for personal preference, for fun, and because of the oppressive heat.

She: "And now, Father Bill will explain why he's wearing a kilt."
Me: "Because it's an awful lot cooler than pants or even shorts."
She: "Oh."

End of discussion.

[Jock Scot]

Tobus, I am always amazed at the constitution of you chaps out in that sort of Texas heat and then to add layers of wool into the equation just is beyond my comprehension. Anything over 70 degrees F and I start to falter. I endured your sort of heat for a few months in Western Australia and I must confess that I could not wait to get out of it!

[Tobus]

Tobus, I am always amazed at the constitution of you chaps out in that sort of Texas heat and then to add layers of wool into the equation just is beyond my comprehension. Anything over 70 degrees F and I start to falter. I endured your sort of heat for a few months in Western Australia and I must confess that I could not wait to get out of it!

Well, to be fair, it goes both ways. We Texans are acclimated to the heat, but put us in a cold environment and we turn into weenies (at least most of us who aren't from North Texas). I reach for a jacket when it dips below about 65 degrees. The kind of cold, wet, blustery weather you get in the Highlands would have me retreating indoors for 8 months out of the year. And the early descriptions of Highlanders sleeping on the bare ground, covered in snow, just wrapped up in their plaids, is unthinkable for me. I've only seen real snow a couple of times in my life, and it was when I was outside of Texas.

To stay on topic, we're all used to a particular environment in which we live. Wearing traditional Highland attire is obviously more suited to the Highlands than some other locations, but it doesn't necessarily mean that one has lost all common sense if we wear it in an environment where we're still comfortable, even if a native Highlander wouldn't be.

The most recent time I wore my kilt was at the Highland Games in San Antonio last month. While I typically do prefer the tweedy day wear look, I chose to go more casual and practical due to a forecast for thunderstorms and a concern for mud. I don't have any photos, but I wore a short-sleeved linen collared button-up shirt, Balmoral, no jacket, no tie, no cromach, with boots and my canvas leggings. I didn't want to ruin a good pair of shoes, hose, or have to worry about my vintage tweed jacket. So I went more for a nod-to-traditional-yet-firmly-practical approach. The storms didn't materialize, but I still felt comfortable with the decision not to get all tweeded up.

*edited to add: And if I'm being honest, I had been up late the night before doing some drinking and playing music, and didn't feel like getting fussy with my attire. Surely there's some Highland tradition involved there!