No, I don’t wear one. There are enough of 'em to be seen in the disreputable establishments I hang out in, though. And I do mean enough.
Anyway, you always see in addition to the “real thing” your 20th-century utilikilt, complete with cargo pockets, and any variation thereof. Last evening during a session a fellow came in bedecked in leather and a kilty thing patterned in digital camo. Naturally there was a clucking of tongues, but I informed my sessionmates that camo was the hereditary pattern of Clan Destine.
Camo utility kilts today…not as far fetched idea with a connection to history.
From the London Scottish Regiment history page.
o, in 1859, sponsored by The Highland Society of London and The Caledonian Society of London, a group of individual Scots raised The London Scottish Rifle Volunteers under the command of Lt Col Lord Elcho, later The Earl of Wemyss and March. He decided to clothe the Regiment in Hodden Grey, the homespun cloth known throughout Scotland.
Lord Elcho, Earl of Wemyss and March.
This avoided all interclan feeling on the subject of tartan and, as Lord Elcho said “A soldier is a man hunter. As a deer stalker chooses the least visible of colours, so ought a soldier to be clad.” The only regiments wearing Hodden Grey are The London Scottish and The Toronto Scottish. The first Honorary Colonel of the Regiment was Field Marshall Lord Clyde (Sir Colin Campbell). Lord Elcho commanded the Regiment for 19 years and then became Honorary Colonel from 1878 to 1900.
Hodden Grey uniform was supposedly the first camo uniform in the British Army. I wore the Hodden Grey as a member of the Toronto Scottish militia unit.
Go here for a picture of a Pipe Major decked out in full uniform:
I work in a kilt just about every day…(changing out of it as fast as possible in this weather…)
..but I gotta draw the line at cammies + leather…
(although, pockets would be helpful…)
I am so naive that I didn’t have a clue about camo kilts, not realizing that camo was an abbreviation for camouflage. Here is a link to some photos: http://www.pittsburghkilts.com/camo.shtml
The Appalachia trail town of Damascus,VA has a Trail Day whoop-ee in the spring that our pipe band often plays for-it’s strictly a freebe, just plain fun. Talk about strange- as we use to say back in the olden days “lotta freaks” here’s a link-http://www.traildays.info/
That’s the first time I saw the “utility kilts”- a lot of the men hiking the trail wear them. They say they can’t be beat for hiking garb.
It seems that I am never comfortable in my band kilt. It’s either too cold or too hot, never a happy medium.
A Camo kilt would look great with MY leather jacket! I still can’t get my girlfriend to let me get ANY kilt though. She can’t be convinced that kilts are for men.
Kilts are the perfect item to wear for a man who sits at a desk all day, very comfortable and not the least binding in the crotch. And I also agree that they are great for hiking. I know this because I spent seven years in a highland regiment and when you weren’t in field training or on exercise the daily base dress was kilt.
What I really don’t understand is all the civilians (those that never served in any armed forces) fascinated with wearing camo gear, does it have something to do with the urban jungle..It just baffles me!
Take her to a Scottish wedding or some other formal function like a ceilidh. Then she’ll see that the men dressed up in their kilts and formal prince charlie jackets, or the less formal loose shirts, look a lot better than the schmucks who turned up in a suit or a tux.
It’s only men who know that you look better than they do dressed up, because you’re in a kilt, that will mock you. And they have small willies. It’s fact.
I wouldn’t wear a kilt everyday but I look forward to the couple of times a year I get mine out of the wardrobe.
As part of a miltary tattoo show, I once saw a bunch of very big, muscular troopers performing highland dancing. Normally you only see little girls prancing about, dressed in silly looking faux plaids. But these were originally men’s virility dances. To see great big guys doing the stag or leaping over the swords in full highland rig is truly impressive.
Unfortunately, I am allergic to wool, and I don’t look good in plaid, so the canvas camo gear may be more suitable for me.
Would that have been in London in 1967 DJ? Just wondering. The sword dance, either danced as single male dancer, or in fours, was danced by Highland men on the eve of battle, and if you stepped on a sword it was an omen that you would be dying in the coming battle. If the piper didn’t like you, you were in for it!
The regiment I was in, had eight male dancers that travelled with the band in the summer time to various highland games and we also danced at regimental events.
Also, before political correctness and the femmist movement, it was a standard saying, “Any fool can wear pants…look at women!”
