Kilt purchase

[Sinned]

MOH, God bless her, has just bought me a kilt on ebay. The Pride of Scotland pattern, I think. I thought, "Ah, some sort of acceptance here". But I learn that it's for special occasions and fancy dress occasions! She said that she intended to get me the whole gear. "Might as well do things right," as she said. Well I shall try and do everything I can to delicately and surreptitiously discourage her from buying the shirt, jacket and so on. Although I do have a line or two that goes to Scotland I don't consider myself Scottish ( but English through and through and certainly NOT EUROPEAN, couldn't insult me more ) and would feel more self-conscious wearing the whole clobber than I feel wearing a skirt. Had I known that was her thinking then I would have discouraged her from buying the kilt!

I love her but I just wish that she would let me be myself and be so less domineering in the relationship. I'm trying ( and I think succeeding ) in bringing some balance back and wearing a skirt whever she isn't around and not hiding the fact. On a positive note I feel much more comfortable in a skirt than I did six months ago. My mother asked me "Why not shorts?" and I had difficulty explaining something in terms of comfort. Most shorts have some sort of net interior and that net tends to get caught up with the pubic hairs and the undertackle ( uncomfortable and painful ) resulting in periodic attempts at separating things or having to wear underwear as well. With a skirt you don't get that. Bliss!

[STEVIE]

Hi Sinned,
I think I know where you're coming from with this.
I regularly get "gifts" from Mrs. K. which are either completely thoughtless or simply intended to shut me up.
I've never received anything as major as a kilt though.
I'm not going to advise, but if it was me, I'd accept and play the "game".
"English", I don't know your family name, but given your location, you may have some connections "up here".
What's more, you do, in terms of kin(dred spirits), I reckon that would be unaminous from north of our "border".
Have a look on the net as how to dress a kilt up or down, the results could be a revalation, to you and your good lady.
Remember, the "kilt" is a skirt in eveything but name.
Steve.

[Sinned]

Well the kilt has arrived and it really looks nice. But at 1.5kg I would certainly notice the weight! The pattern is Pride of Scotland so we like the colours of dark blue, purple and white. I've tried it on and it fits well enough. MOH has taken a couple of photos which I will post when I get back.

[JamieB]

I hope that when you wear your new kilt, it will be worn properly with hose, garter tabs, shoes, belt and sporran. are you wearing a jacket too?
I will be wearing my kilt, Lamont tartan at my nephews wedding in Birmingham next weekend. Newarly everybody else will be wearing morning suits as it's a pukka wedding.
Advantage of the kolt outfit is that I will wear a black jacket with white shirt and tartan tie for the formal art of the day and then wear a ghille shirt with the kilt for the ceilidh in the evening.
A kilt is a multi purpose ourfit suitable for both formal and casual occasions.

ps will you be wearing what a true Scotsman wears under the kilt?

[Couya]

Oh, come on, Janice; don't discourage Sinned now that he at last has something his wife can go along with. Let him wear his kilt however he fancies. If he wants to spend out and buy all the expensive accessories, so be it, but if he, like many other young men (and even older ones like myself) prefers to be casual, he will still look fine without a sweaty jacket, constricting belt or bruising sporran. We don't wear our kilts only to dress up for a wedding. And the "tartan police" just don't exist, even if a few ancient Scots and narrow-minded Americans would like us to think they do. A kilt is just a an attractive, comfortable, long-lasting item of clothing.

Martin

[Couya]

Further to the above, dress codes (other than work place uniforms) serve one purpose only; to distinguish them and us.
A beautifully tailored suit of good cloth is available only to the wealthy, just like the full fancy dress that goes with a kilt. If the whole outfit is not just so, then the wearer can only be some poor upstart who thinks he can hobnob with his betters, but will betray his origins as soon as he opens his mouth.
The most stylish clothes (conservatively stylish, of course) are beyond the budget of the average man, just as the best hotels charge incredible prices so that this who can afford to stay there can be certain not to come into contact with hoi polloi from poor areas.

Personally, I prefer to keep to simple clothing that keeps me warm in winter or cool in summer, rather than trying to emulate the ruling classes. I have no need to dress up.

Martin

[Caultron]

I hope that when you wear your new kilt, it will be worn properly with hose, garter tabs, shoes, belt and sporran. are you wearing a jacket too?
I will be wearing my kilt, Lamont tartan at my nephews wedding in Birmingham next weekend. Newarly everybody else will be wearing morning suits as it's a pukka wedding.
Advantage of the kolt outfit is that I will wear a black jacket with white shirt and tartan tie for the formal art of the day and then wear a ghille shirt with the kilt for the ceilidh in the evening.
A kilt is a multi purpose ourfit suitable for both formal and casual occasions.

ps will you be wearing what a true Scotsman wears under the kilt?

I think just as wearing trousers doesn't require wearing a tuxedo, wearing a kilt doesn't require full regalia. In both cases, there's a range of styles to match the occasion.

As to your final question, I'm sure a right proper Scotsman in full tartan dress would never tell.

[JamieB]

I see that Lidl's supermarkets are selling gents kilts for £19.99 this weekend. Anybody bought one? They are a very light weight material, probably a polyester. Traditional Scottish kilts are usually woolen which sometimes makes them very heavy to wear especially if they get wet.

[Max Caswell]

Have a great time with the kilt, sinned. I wear a utility kilt for the heck of it and sometimes playing bluegrass, alternating with a more traditional kilt for church and sometimes bluegrass.

There's formal kilting which is a joy to see on the net (I've never seen a kilted person in all my days live and up close), and informal kilting, which is the camp to which I belong.

I can't afford formal kilt wear as I'm retired and on a fixed income, but wearing a kilt of any kind is real joy nevertheless, my wife gets a real kick out of it and my social contacts think it's pretty cool, great reception overall.

[Sinned]

JmB, Sorry to disillusion you but there's very little chance of me wearing the full clobber! I might go along with some knee-length white socks to go along with it but the sporran, Jacobean shirt and jacket - never. I'll leave that to the true Scots! I may wear the kilt for best occasions and buy a lighter weight skirt, sorry kilt, in the same pattern for more everyday wear.

Thanks, cy for the support but it's not me you have not to discourage but MOH to encourage ( tee hee ). Kilt matching shirt and jacket ( along with appropriate gear underneath the kilt ) will be fancy enough for me.

Funny but MOH has a thing for the Egyptian log dresses ( I don't know what they call them - someone enlighten me ) and long kaftan as she bought me two more while in Egypt - a royal blue and a white one. These again are supposedly for fancy dress but what would I want with four of them for fancy dress. Thinks that I may wear one of them out one day to see what the reaction would be. I have the tea towel for the head and that fancy black swirly thing that keep it in place. Look right Arab I would and probably cool too. Wonder what MOH would say to that ( after all it is a man's garment - even she can't argue with that ).

[Wim Jansma]

. Although I do have a line or two that goes to Scotland I don't consider myself Scottish ....... but English through and through and certainly NOT EUROPEAN, couldn't insult me more......

Thats an interesting testify.

Why, Sir, do you dislike Europeans ?

I live in the Netherlands and my best friends are Europeans......like you. From England (we never talk about Wales and Scotland, the UK is for us is only called England) and from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, etc.
You may turn away from Europe, but nevertheless, you are an Europian. Whether you like it or not...........
Perhaps you know too few about your fellow-europeans. Well, visit all these countries. Talk to the people. Find out how nice they are. What great cultural acquisition they have. How they can enrich you !
Its YOU who lives on an Island.
The people of the continent dont........they stand together.
Why do you stay at the side-line ?

[Kirbstone]

Dennis,

Re: Europeans. I thought your 'couldn't insult me more' line was a bit strong. I grew up in a very suppressed parochial stifled rural Ireland of the '40s & 50s. My very first exposure to 'foreigners' was at my Boarding School, run by a 'league of gentlemen' missionary priests, so we had a very noticeable intake of Orientals, Indians, Africans & Latin Americans. Some English, too.

Only after I qualified did I leave our benighted shores to work, marrying an English lady from Surbiton and exchanging our children with those of Europeans for holidays &c. Visiting these people in their own countries was a steep learning curve for me in how sophisticated they all were/are.

In my 40s I ventured over to Europe to live & work, Germany for 8 years to be exact, and there I made a great many good friends who I visit as often as financially possible. My eldest daughter graduated in German & Dutch and has lived in both countries for several years. Although now settled back in England with her family she also cultivates a plethora of 'Continental' friends.

I'm very much in Wm Jansma's camp here and I do enjoy his colourful use of English on this forum. I regularly get missives from an old Swiss friend whose use of English is perhaps even more colourful, but that's another story.

Tom

[Sinned]

Before I get more people upset, I have nothing against Europeans per se and I have some best friends in Belgium who are doctors and we visit them and they us as regularly as we can. What I object to is the ( largely ) unelected EU bureaucracy and being called European has been largely associated with that. That is the "being classed as European" that I would find insulting. At one time we had students who were enrolled at a local college offering short duration English language courses and the students lodged with local families and were not only from France, Germany, Italy and Spain etc but from the Middle East - Saudi, Oman etc. In fact one of the students became our friend in Belgium! So it's not the people but the headlong rush to a single United States of Europe that I am against.

[Big and Bashful]

I have to agree, I do not dislike Europeans, I dislike the E.U. and it's onslaught. The people from the rest of Europe, I have liked (Those I can understand! (My fault, I know)), but my blood boils at every new directive which comes out of the Commision, being ignored by most of Europe but blindly obeyed by this country.
Sorry, enough political whining, here's me in trousers ready for work, ho hum!

[Max Caswell]

Everybody is from somewhere, and I have, on Mom's side, Sudanese roots via Israel and Welsh. On Dad's side, both Scotch-Irish, Polish, and Choctaw Indian. Seems y'all are having the same globalist agenda issues on that side of the pond as this. The destruction of our wonderful national heritages in favor of one big corporation, and the targeting of we who enjoy associating with our ancestry. We are all of one blood, that's for sure.

Back to kilts. Here's one of my favorite kilt shots, really a breakthrough for we kilters.