August 1, 2015

"Professor what's your stand on kilts?"

Asks Mac McConnell in the comments to this morning's men-in-shorts post.

My answer: "They should not be so long that I can stand on them."

If you're thinking of wearing a kilt that has a train...



... guys, don't.

39 comments:

robinintn said...

Nice shillelagh.

MAJMike said...

That's not a kilt. That's a skirt.

Gahrie said...

That is definitely not a kilt.

The kilt is a knee-length non-bifurcated skirt-type garment with pleats at the rear

Sprezzatura said...

Here's a more fitting piece of Highland Couturier:

http://www.gracieopulanza.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Sandra-Murray-Ivnka-Trump-Frock-cout1.jpg

furious_a said...

Q: Why do Scotsmen wear kilts?

A: Because sheep can hear a zipper like a.mile away.

Jolan.False said...

If it's good enough for Alexander McQueen, it's good enough for me.

http://s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtimes.com/files/styles/picture_this/public/2012/10/03/2011/07/27/138357-sarah-jessica-parker-l-and-fashion-designer-alexander-mcqueen.jpg

Big Mike said...

I think you'd be all in favor of kilts if you'd seen Sam Hueghan playing Jamie in the "Outlander" series.

Sydney said...

Is it true you can run faster in a kilt?

Sam L. said...

Would a kilt with a steamboat be OK?

cubanbob said...

On her it looks nice. On a tranny, not so much.

James Pawlak said...

One Scots soldier stated: It is the best outfit for urination or fornication.

MacMacConnell said...

Professor, you image is of a person wearing a dress stewart plaid tablecloth not a kilt.

Tablecloth,

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/03/0f/9e/030f9eec32f1c65ee424aad51a070ab2.jpg

Man pretending to be a boy,

http://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/PIX/blackwatch_stereo.JPG

Many men pretending to be boys.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/Black_Watch_firing_rifle_grenade_in_1917.jpg

A colorblind man pretending to be a boy with absolutely no fear of june bugs at 70MPH.

http://photos.imageevent.com/motorbiker/newspics3/Motorcycle-kilt-2.jpg


Michael Fitzgerald said...

Good guys don't, but I do...

harrogate said...

RIP Roddy Piper

Quaestor said...

Good guys don't, but I do...

What? Wear a train?

Who wants to wear a train? The locomotive alone weighs 200 tons.

MacMacConnell said...

Full disclosure,

In all honesty a Royal Enfield probably won't go 70MPH. But, june bugs still hurt at 45MPH.

Quaestor said...

A colorblind man pretending to be a boy with absolutely no fear of june bugs at 70MPH.

Before the Regency Period, when somebody (a well-heeled purveyor of Scottish woolens, na'doot) decreed that tartans had something strongly to do with clan affiliation, mixing different tartans on the same body at the same time wasn't uncommon in Scotland.

Quaestor said...

Althouse has deftly skirted the kilt question by posting what is in her opinion a definite DON'T. (Heck, that a DON'T even for women who are sane.)

With that in mind I point to this, and ask if that's a DO (assuming one has the build, of course).

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

If I were a physicist, perhaps I'd have a better understanding of the relationship between that hat and that hair.

Smilin' Jack said...

When you look like that, you can wear anything you want.

Bob said...

The wooden object shown in the photo is not a shillelegh, but a shepherd's crook.

As for kilts, one way to measure proper length is to kneel while wearing it; if any part touches the ground or floor, it's too long (outraged Scotsmen will say, "Scots dinnae kneel to aebody!")

MaxedOutMama said...

While shorts, kilts and so forth are a legitimate source of dissent, I believe all persons not genuinely mentally deranged will agree on one precept:

Kilts and fishnet stockings should not be worn together!!!

I think men look decent in shorts if they are comfortable in them - the idea that everyone would be primping and prepping all the time to meet someone else's standard of beauty strikes me as odd and off. If I have an idea of masculinity, it does not include that. A man, in my opinion, who does not wear shorts because he is ashamed of his legs is rather unmasculine.

Rusty said...

Not a kilt. A tartan.A kilt is a skirt. A tartan is a wrap.

William said...

The shepherds had to cross many brooks and streams during the course of a day's work or travel. A kilt eliminated the need to walk around in wet, bedraggled pants. A kilt served a useful, functional purpose at one time...........Speaking of pants, this garment was introduced into western society by Genghis Khan. Prior to him, men wore tunics and occasionally leggings in the winters. In my estimation, tunics are more objectionable than shorts. Genghis Khan is directly responsible for Hillary's pantsuits.

YoungHegelian said...

@MaxedOutMama,

Kilts and fishnet stockings should not be worn together!!!

Oh, great! Now you tell me....

No wonder Queen E. had that ticked-off look on her face!

Michael said...

Rusty

A tartan is a fabric design used in kilts among other garments. A traditional Scottish kilt wraps around the midriff with pleats in the rear. It is not a skirt. mine is probably six feet end to end when laid out.

Quaestor said...

Rusty wrote: A tartan is a wrap

No. Tartan is a distinctive pattern of crossing stripes, especially a pattern associated with a Scottish clan or family. Tartan can also be the woolen cloth itself. What you're thinking of is a plaid (pronounced PLAY'D) which is length of tartan cloth which is wrapped around the torso and fastened at the left should with a brooch or pin. Originally it was part of the kilt, until an Englishman invented the kilt as it exists today. This illustration gives a good visual explanation of the 17th and early 18th century kilt and how it was worn.

According to lore the idea of separating the kilt and the plaid into two pieces rather than one belonged to an English engineer who was employed building canals and locks through the Great Glen as part of a project to connect the North Sea to the Firth of Clyde. He noticed that his Highland navvies were unduly encumbered in their movements by their antique garb, so he fixed the problem by modifying the design. (Political thinkers address problems by banning things and punishing non-compliance. Engineers are wholly superior thinkers and practical moralists who fix things by fixing things and not people.)

buwaya said...

Living where I am, I remember something of a fad for these things in the nerd/geek community. One would see them at SF conventions and technology events, and a few wore them to work. It seems to have passed, but perhaps not entirely.

buwaya said...

Pants were introduced by the Celts and Germans, not to mention the Persians, long before Genghis Khan. The civilized ancient European garment was the tunic.

Ctmom4 said...

@Big Mike "I think you'd be all in favor of kilts if you'd seen Sam Hueghan playing Jamie in the "Outlander" series."
Amen to that.

robother said...

If Ann's only concern in figuring out where she stands on the Kilt is the train, she failed to note that "Kilt strap at back may be used to lift the train and create a bustle."

tim maguire said...

Hats sitting at a wierd angle such that they have to be attached to not fall off are fine if the hat is a little undersized and the angle isn't too wierd. This one looks stupid--it shouldn't "balance" her hair like that.

Rusty said...

What is a tartan? In many countries today, the pattern of interlocking stripes called a tartan is often mistakenly known as "plaid." Plaide actually comes from the Gaelic word for a blanket, and is specifically used in the context of Highland dress to refer to a large length of material. The original kilt was known as the "belted plaid" and consisted of a length of cloth (basically a large blanket) that was gathered and belted at the waist. The plaids were most often made from a tartan cloth, and so the confusion between the two terms is understandable.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

The shepherds had to cross many brooks and streams during the course of a day's work or travel.

I read somewhere that the little dimple things on my shoes harken back to the days when an awl was used to punch holes in shoes to let out the water.

Sounds plausible enough to me.

Sam L. said...

If I had one, I'd stand IN it, not ON it.

Anthony said...

Out here in Seattle the only men wearing kilts seem to be middle aged pasty white nerds with pot bellies and scrawny legs.

MacMacConnell said...

Quaestor

So there are Tartan plaids and stripes? For example, regimental stripes and tartan plaids?

mikee said...

The last time I saw a man in a kilt was in Towson, a suburb of Baltimore, MD. He lived one neighborhood away, and he wore it on Sunday afternoons when he practiced his bagpipe playing in his front yard. He drew a crowd. He could really toot that bagpipe, and practiced the marches he'd do in parades.

That said, I never had the nerve to ask if he wore it in the traditional mode, re underwear. Had Laslo been around, he might have helped me out there.

David Gassand said...

I recently found an online website named superkilts, where you can buy different kilts such as Utility kilts, tartan kilts, etc...also all kilts seems really good at affordable prices