Contemporary Kilts -- a Visual guide....

[The Wizard of BC]

I would like to thank everyone who is adding to this thread. It is really helping me to sort this all out.

One thing that seems to be coming through your comments is that many of you have a similar problem with how the words traditional, modern, contemporary etc are used on this forum.

I'm pretty sure that my objection to the word traditional is because many here seem to use it in a way that implies, traditional = right. Now, don't start yelling, I know that is not what you mean. But it is how it comes across to me sometimes.

I also was noticing, when reading posts like thistledown's above, he can use 'Highland wear' alone and still make his point very well.

It is very plain in his post that 'highland wear' and 'non-highland wear' would be very easy to figure out if you saw them. The guy in the center of his black and white photo - yep, that's highland wear. Me in the photo above - yep - not highland wear.

I'm also working on a thing sort of like a chart of the visible part of the Electromagnetic spectrum. On one end are Nathan and McMurdo with the Quaich. On the other is a guy in a Utlikilt at Burning Man.
What is in the middle are all the colors of the rainbow blending one into the other.

So where this is sort of heading is something less like a hard line definition and more alone the lines of a chart of the Electromagnetic spectrum with numbers along its length. Each number corresponding to a photo representing that part of the spectrum.
The photos from Ern above, and the one of me above, would be right about in the middle somewhere. We would be a very large part of the total of kilt wearers.
At least from the photos I am finding on this forum. There are a few who carry off the full highland wear look and a few that carry off the 'trouser tyranny' look. Somewhere in between is where the vast majority of our members fit.

So please, let's keep this going. I really believe it is coming together.

[ThistleDown]

Are you saying you will know Modern Highland Civilian Dress when you see it, Steve?

[Steve Ashton]

Yep, Tartan Army!

[ThistleDown]

Yep, me too! I've never seen you dress TA, but I have seen you in an original Freedom Kilt and that's definitely MHCD.

[CMcG]

Jock and ThistleDown, thanks for your replies. Steve, I'm glad you're finding this helpful; I am too!

It seems, then, that if we fix the level of focus at ""20 yards, blink of the eye" then there are a lot of details that need not be considered in placing a look within the traditional/modern dichotomy. I like this method and find it useful in its simplicity. Case in point, it works for me to put Steve's black-on-black outfit from post #65 in the THCD category.

On an enthusiast website like this, however, there's always more things to discuss Now we know that Steve's look is traditional, but I'm still interested in how and why... The "no border -- no hard line -- between yesterday and today, just a blurring one into the other" suggested by ThistleDown is useful for placing the evolution of Highland attire along a continuum or spectrum of tradition (i.e., that which is passed down from generation to generation). Fifty years ago, some of the details and personal choices of Steve's look would have been rare (if not altogether unconventional), but in a blink of the eye at 20 yards would not have been out of place either. To me, Steve's approach to Highland wear can thus be considered as being part of the current generation of tradition's evolution. He hasn't made a break from the past but is quite up-to-date; his choice's reflect a distinctly contemporary interpretation of THCD, rather than a contemporary preservation of received tradition.

How does that sound to everybody?

[ThistleDown]

That sounds good, to me. Think of it this way, too: at 20 yards revisit Steve's pic with some re-dressing. He now has the same black shirt but it has a large white logo on the left pocket, he's wearing the same dark hose but they're scrunched down; instead of his old loafers he has on a pair of ankle-height black boots and, because he has unseen pockets in his tartan kilt, he's not wearing a sporran. At 20 yards he's wearing modern. If he exchanges his tartan kilt for a plain Freedom kilt in slate blue and his black shirt for a pale blue polo, I still see that as modern. Exchange the slate kilt for a camo UK and the shirt for a t-shirt and I see that as post-modern or further along the spectrum to the right.

The problem with the spectrum idea is locating 'today' because THCD, Modern and Post-Modern are all Contemporary.

[CMcG]

...

The problem with the spectrum idea is locating 'today' because THCD, Modern and Post-Modern are all Contemporary.

Indeed. Contemporary kilt wear basically covers every type and style in current use, so Steve really has his work cut out for him! The THCD guide that Nathan and I put together is fairly extensive, so Steve doesn't really need to do that over again. That being said, we took a fairly conservative approach, so we were looking at preservation-minded contemporary THCD and common sense THCD accommodations... Steve may wish to flesh out contemporary THCD (re)interpretations ...

[Alan H]

I rather like the "20 yards, blink of an eye" idea!

I also like the "spectrum" idea. I also like just not worrying about it. Heh. But that's just me!

[kiltedrennie]

Here's my contribution. Last night at our son's football game (he's a trombone player in the marching band). Leather jacket, Tilley hat, hoodie, tartan cargo kilt, wool kilt hose and knit wool garters (chilly night), boots.

[CMcG]

Here's my contribution. Last night at our son's football game (he's a trombone player in the marching band). Leather jacket, Tilley hat, hoodie, tartan cargo kilt, wool kilt hose and knit wool garters (chilly night), boots.

I'm digging the tartan cargo kilt! I've seen them cropping up in a few places lately... where'd you get yours?