Men in Kilts

I went to a wedding last March between a friend of mine and a groom who was Scottish. They had it rrrright on the beach.

Ocean winds + early March + kilts = F-A-I-L

Captain Jack!!

ooo-eee!

If I was Scottish (which I’m not) I would wear a kilt every day just for the hell of it, because they are wonderful things.

Quick guide to the photo, BTW:

Those shoes are Ghillie Brogues, wingtips with no tongue and loops cut in the side. A Ghillie, a game guide, would wear shoes like that to shed water easily when stepping through streams and boggy areas. The sock are “hose” and they have little “flashes” peeking out, which are attached to elastic that keeps the hose up. Before elastic, those would have been tied ribbons. There’s some controversy about hose with black tie; some folks think that white looks best, others think that white is the only unacceptable color. I’ve done it both ways.

On Barrowman’s right calf just sticking out of the top of his hose, you can see a sgian dubh. Lots of people either don’t know the meaning of it or get it wrong: sgian dubh is Scottish Gaelic for “black knife,” though the oldest examples have staghorn handles and are not black. In agricultural and pastoral communities, knives are necessary to daily life, but in the Scottish Highlands after the Jacobite Rising of 1745 (under Bonnie Prince Charlie), the carrying of weapons was forbidden, as was the playing of bagpipes (deemed a weapon of war), wearing of tartan, and speaking of Gaelic. It was an attempt to eliminate the separate culture of the highlands because they posed a political threat to the Hanoverian dynasty of King George I through IV. Because wearing weapons was outlawed, men stuck a four-inch utility knife in their stocking for general duty, and that’s how we got through the 37-year Acts of Proscription.

The kilt itself is made of worsted wool, pleated across the back and with two “aprons” in front, buckled in place, left over right. The kilt sits a bit higher than pants, up about the navel. Contrary to popular belief, it contains much less than nine yards of fabric; usually closer to six, in fact. The kilt, in Gaelic faile beg or corrupted to philabeg, is descended from the great plaid, the breacan faile, which you can see in Braveheart or on Liam Neeson in Rob Roy. It was a blanket, pleated and belted and with the top either hanging or over the shoulder. Over time, belt-loops or sewn-in pleats appreared, the top got cut off, and that’s a kilt. The story about an English engineer inventing it isn’t really true; the process was more gradual and there are some surviving examples of interim steps like breacan failes with belt loops.

The modern tartans do not look much like earlier tartans. Tartan is thousands of years old, but it was made more or less spontaneously to personal taste by weavers. It largely disappeared during the Acts of Proscription, but in the 1800s tartans began appearing again as Sir Walter Scott popularized highland culture. With the textiles industry booming, marketers invented a whole system of clan tartans in the bright colors that industrial fabric makers produced; that system of Victorian forgeries is mostly the clan tartan system we have today.

Shirts worn with kilts and formal jackets are ordinary formal shirts, though some men prefer longer shirttails to protect sensitive areas from the worsted wool.

That kind of jacket and waistcoat are called a “Prince Charlie Coatee.” There are other black-tie options; naming is dicey, though the more suit-looking evening jacket is often called an Argyll Jacket. The Prince Charlie is gaining in popularity because it simply looks better on most men. You frequently see men photographed with Prince Charlie and a shiny belt. This is a faux pas. The Prince Charlie is worn with a waistcoat, making a belt superfluous.

The thing around his waist is a “sporran.” It’s a purse. That’s where the wallet and cell phone go. Kilts have no pockets, and storage space in the pockets of a Prince Charlie is in short supply.

Oro, we’ve got wee kilts for the bairns. I suspect my spouse and I will march with one and carry the other at the parade this year. We’ll have to make the lassie a matching tartan ruana.

Ewan McGregor turned me on to kilts. David Tennant & Gerard Butler carried on the proud tradition. Now we have James McAvoy, the real McDreamy as far as I’m concerned.

D.N. – had a similar thought last year at my friend’s Jewish/Scottish wedding. The kilt was not made with the traditional Jewish chair dance in mind!

Ocean winds + early March + kilts = F-A-I-L

So did they also follow the supposed Scottish tradition of, um, going commando under the kilt? ‘Cause that would have made for some great wedding photos.

Yep, that certainly is Tom Baker. I was just sad not to find one of Eccleston in a kilt, or even a good one of him in Elizabethan hose from when he played the Duke of Norfolk in Elizabeth.

Bonus trivia: Baker’s the only one in my selection who’s wearing the Great Kilt, or breacan faile, that Thomas TSID referred to above.

I believe that kilts are considered to be specifically a male garment; hence, a man wearing a kilt isn’t cross-dressing.

What I want to see is men wearing miniskirts!

Laurie, I said above that it is a purse. That’s its function. Fur sporrans are dressy, for evening. Day sporrans are leather with no bright metal. They often have hard sides front and back, which means they always look good and never have enough room; sometimes I see more baglike sporrans, which I expect are roomier.

The Scottish reader steps in…

A sporran is kinda like a codpiece – that’s why it hangs in front of the groin. It also weighs down the fabric. And you can put your piece* in it!

Also, Scottish men don’t wear kilts very often. Football games, weddings and (if you can play traditional instruments) when playing concerts or busking.

And Sir Walter Scott didn’t really popularise highland culture – he made up a whole load of fake, sanitized Scottish culture to romanticise Scots and to sell Scotland as a tourist destination.

*That’s your sandwich or snack, by the way.

Thomas, if any of your Scottish relatives are in Glasgow, tell them to join the Glasgow Feminist Network! We’re really really new, but we’re planning loads of cool events for International Women’s Day. http://www.myspace.com/glasgowfeministnetwork

And, I’ve met many Americans who call themselves Scottish despite having never been here and their Scottish immigrant relatives having died long before they were born. It’s always baffled me – I’ve never met Americans descended from any other European country who do the same thing!

Charlotte, my father’s side are all from, and mostly still in, Fife. My mom’s side immigrated in 1909, so the connection is much more distant.

I think there are many members of diasporas in the US that consider themselves …ish. I have Italian-American friends that call themselves Italians and Polish-American relatives (my spouse, for example) who call themselves Polish, and Indian-American friends who call themselves Indian. I know “Puerto Ricans” whose families have been in the US for more generations than mine. I think it’s a matter of how Americans talk about (or don’t talk about) diasporas.

For my part, I’m very much aware that I’m an ethnic Scot but not a native Scot, a member of the diaspora. And the culture of a diaspora isn’t the same as the culture of those who remain. Pizza isn’t from Italy, Chicken Tikka isn’t from India (Glasgow, matter of fact), and most of the Celtic Punk is from Boston, Chicago and the Bronx. Some of the best Scottish fiddle is Cape Breton Island fiddle, and that’s Scottish Canadian. Still, my view is that the cultures of the native land and the diaspora are conjoined twins, neither fully separate nor fully united.

Exactly, Charlotte- I have worked on genealogy for decades and have always said that my ANCESTORS were Scottish, Irish, Welsh, English and Canadian. I’m just from Maine! :)

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…………………………..

Yeah, that’s about all I can say.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm………..

BTW, what you wrote about the Scottish kilt was very informative. I have 2 Scottish lines (Gordons and Houstons); both came to America around late 1600’s- early 1700’s. So any pieces of first-hand knowledge much appreciated! :)

Thomas, my husband was born in Kirkcaldy!

Hexy, my own Scots ancestry is much further removed than yours, but both my father and my uncle have and wear kilts, and my uncle is an accomplished piper (my dad has a bagpipe, but let’s just say I can understand its classification as a weapon of war). I did a bit of Highland Dancing as a child, and still know all the words of many many Scottish folk songs.

I guess the main reason we don’t identify as ethnic Scots though is that we, like most other Aussies whose families have been here for ages, have intermarried with other ethnic groups. My dad’s heritage is English and Scots-Irish, my Mum’s heritage is English and Welsh, so I’m a British bitser: I suspect the attachment to the kilts is as much the romance of the Highlands as anything else.

Have seen many on TV, but have not seen a man in Scots dress up until about 5 years ago at a Celtic gathering. I have to say even though I don’t have the body for one, I would certainly love to wear one. I think they are very masculine and certainly very attractive. The authorities on wearing them say they are great if worn in good taste. Hey ! Men why not.