Don’t get kilt guilt over ‘cultural appropriation’ fears
People worry about being judged for wearing outfit after discovering Scottish ancestry using DNA kits
IT IS a question troubling a new generation of ancestral Scots discovering their heritage – is wearing a kilt racist?
Kiltmakers have reported a surge in interest in non-Scots enquiring about the country’s national dress, after online tools have made tracing family trees easier and cheap home testing kits revealed ancient Scottish roots.
But in an age of cultural sensitivities, many fear celebrating their historic origins with a kilt, sporran and sgian-dubh may offend Scots.
Bosses at MacGregor and MacDuff Kiltmakers say they have heard concerns around “cultural appropriation”. The company even published an article on its website in an attempt to reassure customers, telling them that so long as the kilt was not worn “as a joke or to make fun of Scottish culture”, it would not upset the natives.
“Over the past five or so years there has absolutely been an increase in nonScots buying and hiring Highland wear from us,” Dave Baird, an executive at the company, said.
“With the boom of DNA kits, a lot of non-Scots are discovering their Scottish ancestry and choosing to celebrate it.
“As long as people wear a kilt properly, cultural appropriation isn’t an issue. We like to think of it as cultural celebration. While the kilt is undoubtedly a Scottish thing, there’s no rules to who can wear one.
“The idea kilts are reserved for Scots comes from the way tartans are named. Clan tartans are all connected to a Scottish family name and there is a myth you can’t wear the tartan of another clan. This is not the case and anyone can wear whatever tartan they like.”
Last year, a surge in the popularity of kilts, coupled with a backlog of weddings and formal events caused by the pandemic, contributed to an unprecedented national kilt shortage.
Mr Baird said kilts were increasingly gaining traction in the fashion industry, too, with his firm increasingly being approached by fashion publications to provide clothes for photo shoots.
Firms are also attempting to appeal to younger audiences, with Gordon Nicolson Kiltmakers recently developing an Xbox tartan, in partnership with Microsoft, to cover console controllers.
It also created the official University of Edinburgh and Celtic FC tartans, appealing to alumni and football fans across the world.
“Many of our customers very consciously aim to avoid causing offence and do check that wearing Highland dress or specific tartans is acceptable,” Mr Nicolson said.
“But it is OK for non-Scots to wear a kilt and we encourage non-Scots to indulge. There’s a new generation of kiltmakers and tartans coming through. There are a few hardcore people who might not like that but they’ll be stuck in the mud with the same old tartans.”