People are always asking what is the dress code
for Gung Haggis Fat Choy? 
The best answer is ethnic
eclectic.  We encourage kilts, tartans, cheongsams and Chinese
jackets, and whatever gets your fancy!  This really is a fun
dinner. Some people wear formal kilts and cheongsams, the long Chinese
dress – and they look fantastic.  Some people wear a short tartan
skirt mixed with a Chinese top, or a business suit with a tartan tie,
some people wear a sari, some people wear casual – and it's all
good.  But nobody yet has come wearing a tuxedo or lederhosen.

Now I have my very own kilt made by Terry “Bear” Varga, owner of Bear Kilts. 
“Bear” as he is known was the first casual tartan kilt maker
around. 
He points out that Utili-kilts does not come in tartan.  Bear is
my
newest kilt mentor, after Angus Mackenzie.  The least expensive
kilt
made by Bear Kilts is a poly-viscous kilt for about $135, and they will
range to as fancy as you need it such as a heavy weight wrap
wool.  Needless to say, Bear has made a number of kilts for high
school graduation ceremonies.

Bear Kilts has graciously donated a “made to order kilt”
to the Gung Haggis Fat Choy prize raffle.  It will be a $300 made
to order kilt – dependent upon in-stock material of tartan.  “I've
never had a gift certificate for a kilt go unredeemed,” Bear told me on
Robbie Burns Day when he made the offer.  So if you thought you
couldn't afford a kilt, just buy $20 worth or raffle tickets for a good
chance to win a great kilt.

Bear Kilts is also a sponsor for
the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragonboat team.  We hope to integrate
Bear's bunch of braw' boys into the team's engine room and promote Bear
Kilts wherever we go paddling..  What better way to stand out in a
dragon boat crowd, then to do so wearin' a kilt?

I am wearing a polyviscous Maple Leaf tartan,
in the above left side photos. This is designed to be light for summer
wear, since I plan to wear it during Dragon Boat competitions. 
The synthetic material is easy to wash – perfect for mixing with salt
water.  For the top right I am wearing an Ancient Fraser or Fraser
of Lovat – as it was the very first kilt
I ever wore in 1993 from Simon Fraser University.  In the bottom
right I am wearing a Royal Stewart that was used for the filming of the
“dressing up” scenes in the CBC television special “Gung Haggis Fat Choy.”
It had been a long afternoon, and I decided to create some
cross-costume dressing fusion by borrowing the Lion head mask and
adding it to my Scottish costume.  The result?  People loved
the photograph – taken by my friend Don Montgomery.

The very first Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner in 1998 was a house party. And since “I dinna hav a kilt,” for
my tartan I wore a Canadian lumberjack Mackincaw shirt tied around my
waist backwards.  It looked very good considering the
circumstances.  My buddy Craig and I were the only fellows wearing
“kilts” for that first house party of 16 people.  Only the hired
bagpiper had a real kilt.

I do not recommend wearing only a Lumberjack shirt tied backwards
around your waist for the Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner.  Mayor
Larry Campbell will probably arrive wearing his dress kilt, as will a
number of other gentlemen and wannabe-Scots.