The MacBitseach

Okay, here's your chance to get a deal. I try not to use this blog for blatant commercialism for Bear Kilts but I'm having my first ever sale. If it goes well, I'll do it every year. Bear's Birthday Sale! If you don't have a kilt yet, this would be a good time to start!

A guy walks into a bar ... no wait. That's not the joke. A guy walks into a second hand store ... never mind. Does anyone here have the ability to walk BY a second hand store? I don't. Same thing with a thrift store, though you don't (usually) get the same quality of stuff. Every now and then, I get lucky and find a deal on just what I want. It's hard to find a kilt jacket/coat because they have to be cut short at the bottom to allow the pleats to move freely. Not all styles look 'right' with a kilt, either. Check out this leather coat I bought for $40.00! It really suits being worn with a kilt. The best part is that it works with all my kilts, unlike a wool jacket. I guess the joke is on those who don't dive into second hand stores!

There is a double standard, even among those who go kilted, that is generally accepted as a good double standard. It has to do with proper accessorization of kilts. On the bus to work today, I noticed a man in a black suit wearing brown shoes. "Never get away with that in a kilt," I thought. Then I mentally slapped my own face. All day I've been seeing guys 'dressed up' in suits, committing horrible gaffs in their wardrobe choices - and nobody cares! Put on a kilt though, and every stranger on the street feels the need to point out that your shoes don't match your sporran, or one sock is higher than the other by half an inch. And the people who comment invariably have a glaring fashion faux pas to throw back at them. I'm also told by the kilted community that I am representing all those others who are wearing kilts, so if I'm rude to someone, it reflects badly on the kilted. WTF is with that? My worry is that people will start to think of men in kilts,...

What if I told you that the clan tartans as we know them today are only 200 years old? This link is a page on the albanach.org site. Matt Newsome states that clan tartans came to be recognised and listed much later in history than I had imagined; in the 18th century! There have been kilts and tartans in Scotland for at least since the 16th century. Nobody I know is questioning that, nor have I seen any solid evidence that kilts were invented anywhere else but Scotland. (My Irish blood compells me to add that if a Scotii combined a leine and brat, he'd get a rudimentary kilt.) I had also thought that clan tartans were from the 16th century but the albanach.org site gives evidence to the contrary, even telling you the where and why that the clan tartans were made. Whatever you think of the site, it's a fascinating read and Newsome certainly seems to know his stuff! Also see The Irish Kilt Club for some interesting info on Irish kilts. Padraig Pearce was a poet, ...