Christmas Eve outfit

This was the outfit for working at the church on Christmas Eve.

Bespoke kilt suit at Tailored History of Toronto Book Launch

I know its been a while but I have still been wearing my kilt just had no internet access for a while due to renovations. In that time we have had a couple of Tartan Tuesdays and a book launch. I thought I would show you the photos from the book launch. It was a great night and I am enjoying the book.

Tartan Tuesday Sept 5

Last night was another Tartan Tuesday at The Feathers Pub. We are starting to become regulars, upon arrival one of the guys in the pub had to come over and ask lots of questions but he was a nice guy who genuinely wanted to know. He was from Glasgow and is on his way back home today, we had a good chat about loads of subjects and who knows when he is back he may join us. It was a good night and we had some surprises it was good to see Ewan back for example. Next Tartan Tuesday will again be at The Feathers on October 3.

Inverlorne

We were invited to a very special housewarming/ birthday party today it was a housewarming for Nathan and Nicole as well as Nathan's 40th birthday party. Inverlorne is the house and it is amazing, built in 1878 and in the same family until now, my friends are the 2nd owners, as it had been in the same family until this purchase.

Tartan Tuesday August 1st at The Feathers Pub

Last night was our monthly Tartan Tuesday our second at the Feathers Pub. It was another great night with great people, Andy rode his Harley in but changed into his kilt the bathroom.

Tartan Tuesday July 25th

We had a special Tartan Tuesday on the 25th, David and Anna were in from Victoria BC for a wedding and asked us to put on a special kilt night. We always look for reasons to wear our kilts so it was an easy decision. It was such a great night and it was a pleasure to welcome David and Anna and get to know them a bit better, David and I have been on the same forum for about 10 years but this was the first time we had met in real life.

Tartan Tuesday July 4th 2017

Last night was our first Tartan Tuesday at The Feathers Pub. We decided that it was important to try out an accessible pub and The Feathers was just wonderful, they provided us with a gluten free menu and the entrance did not have a step and the washrooms were on the first floor. The regulars didn't bat an eye at us, in fact when we got up for the group photo one guy started to mimic a bagpipe to the tune of Flower of Scotland and another came over to ask us where to buy a kilt, all in all a good night at a new place.

Outfit for a memorial

This was the outfit for today, we had a memorial to go to for an elder in the church I work at, Bea was a wonderful woman who did much for the community in Toronto starting the Out of the Cold program to get people a place to sleep and the churches on the hill food bank which helps feed those same people. Her smile and laughter are missed already she was truly one of a kind.

I decided on the black barathea argyll as the tweed was simply too hot, this was only the second time I've ever worn the black argyll this was also the first time I've ever worn a semi-dress sporran, this one belonged to Vanessa's Grandfather and is from Nicholl Brothers.

A bit of polish.

A little while ago I got a horsehair sporran from a friend I wrote a blog about it at the beginning of May. Yesterday I decided to polish the silver cantle to see if I could get rid of the tarnish. Below is a photo, I think it came out rather well, however more work on it is needed.

D-Day Anniversary outfit

This was taken before the rain on Tuesday June 6th. I had planned to wear this outfit to our Tartan Tuesday kilt night, I thought it was appropriate to wear the Royal Naval Association kilt, as it was the 73rd Anniversary of the D-Day landings. I paired it with my Lovat Blue Argyll jacket, Brooks Brothers shirt and Brooks Brothers cashmere tie with my Ministry of Defense cantled sporran, and my Saltire top kilt hose.

They're just socks or bullies everywhere.

A couple of days ago I posted this photo on facebook of me in my Scottish Wildcat Tartan kilt suit. I am wearing the tartan suit and heather colour kilt hose. The funny thing about this is that so many members of the group attacked me for wearing pink kilt hose saying things like "Awful" or "nope" even "That is ugly." and " A bit gay looking but still not as bad as Jack McConnels pin striped kilt". One person compared it to a Utilikilt, I took exception to that as it is a bespoke kilt suit made specifically for me, as such it is at the other end of the spectrum from a utilikilt. He did take the comment down and we were able to use that as a vehicle for discussion and came out of it better in the end.

What really bothers me about this is that as a regular kilt wearer, full time for 6 years or so, I have confronted my fair share of bullies and others who question what I'm wearing. I would never question what someone else wears. In the end it is none of my business what someone else wears. I would hope as a bunch of kilt wearers when you see someone dressed properly in a bespoke outfit people would come together instead of picking at the person because of their choice of hose colour. Another thought that someone else made is that when someone wears the kilt sloppily on this group they get nothing but likes and compliments, it left us both shaking our heads. The comments got so ugly and unruly that I did consider leaving the group where I posted the photo and might do that anyway.

UPDATE:
The insults kept coming today so I left the group.

Tartan Tuesday 3rd Anniversary

Tonight was our 3rd Anniversary for Tartan Tuesday, it has been wonderful to be a part of and I am very proud of what it has become, thank you all who have showed up some once some often.

A new to me sporran

A few weeks ago a friend of mine sent a message to me regarding a sporran I might want. He had this sporran from an Estate Sale and as he had a few antique horsehair sporrans he did not need this one. The only real information I have about it is that it is from 1911. I am debuting it tomorrow night for the 3rd Anniversary of Tartan Tuesday.

I woke up this morning to a private message regarding what shoes to wear with a Highland outfit, now the outfit in question is a black tie outfit using a black argyll jacket with silver buttons. The gent asked if he should be using opera shoes. My answer is you should not. Here are a couple of photos of the shoes I would recommend for a Black Tie outfit.
Ghillie Brogues

The other shoe I would recommend is a wingtip or brogue shoe. Mine are from Florsheim and have served me well for years.

Met another kilt wearer walking down the street

A few weeks ago I was walking down the street on a wonderful spring day. I decided to wear the kilt as it was such a wonderful day.  Thomas agreed to pose for a photo to commemorate the meeting. He was in town doing presentations for his work.

Pin for the RNA Tartan

When I first got my Royal Naval Association kilt in honour of my Uncle McMurdo (Murdy) I wanted to get a Scottish Agate Anchor Pin. The problem has been that everyone I've seen on eBay has gone over hundreds of dollars completely out of my budget. Recently I decided to look on a different vintage site and found one suitable at a reasonable price. My only problem now was that the seller would only ship to the United States. I was lucky in that another member of xmarks graciously agreed to ship it to Canada for me. Now that I have the pin in place I will take a trip up to Uncle Murdy's final resting place. Thanks to Kilted Cole for all his help, it means the world to me. Without further ado from me, here is the photo.

It's been a while

I thought I should post an update, as I was looking through the blog and did not realize just how long it has been dormant. My last post was about Tartan Tuesday, we are now coming up to our 3rd Anniversary. This photo was from the first anniversary.

Another big thing is that I designed a tartan for Wildcat Haven, called the Scottish Wildcat Tartan. It has been very well received and we are looking for interest in a fourth run of the tartan, 15% of the proceeds of the sale of the tartan goes to Wildcat Haven to help them with the important work they are doing to try to help the wildcat survive. When we started this project there were estimates of between 30 and 300 Scottish Wildcats left in the wild.

Here is the tartan design and me in my Scottish Wildcat Tartan Kilt Suit.