Boots?

Kilts look great with boots.

Mat

 

Most images found online echo or amplify this observation-opinion.  I usually wear a great pair of Doc Martins (very high with buckles over the ankles).  I found that these boots show off the kilt, my legs and, at the same time, are slightly invisible (while I get complements, they don't call attention to themselves).

 New Rock boots are my favorite; I just can't afford a pair right now.  So, to get a multiple buckle look with beefy souls embellished with metal screws, I found a pair of Tripp boots that I love.  

I was hesitant to wear these to work:  What was too much? I always ask myself that question.  On the encouragement of my wife, I wore them to work Friday, and received both the expected complements, and the unexpected invisibility:  Invisibility does not mean that people aren't talking.  It means that the phenomenon "passes."  I brought them to the attention of my co-worker, Monica, who liked them.  She said they made me look like a cartoon character (in a good way). Thus, we are back to costume over uniform.  While men are expected to wear uniforms to work, the costume is more significant, more ambiguous; they are signs not signals.

Can Gigandet

Signals, Umberto Eco's Theory of Semiotics tells us, have no room for signification:  They are binary (on or off); no room for questions, ambiguity or discussion,

Signs, he continues, points they way they do because of cultural conventions, codes, and are founded on (usually invisible) ideologies and mythologies--food for the meanings, beliefs and values of our lives.

Uniforms may be thought of as signals:  My suit and tie says I am ready for work.  My "kilted self," and all the accoutrements that make up my inscribed body, are signs, and its the codes, ideologies and mythologies that people respond to (not the thing itself).

KozLuvBorg 10/14/11