In the great war, many Scottish and Canadian soldiers wore kilts as part of their uniform. For the Scots, how new of an experience would this be? In the late 19th and early 20th century how common was kilt wearing in Scotland, in cities and towns in particular? If I were in Aberdeen or Glasgow in 1910 would I see men in kilts going about their business, working etc or were kilts reserved for people living very traditional shepherding lifestyles in the Highlands and formal/ceremonial occasions like weddings, funerals and social events?
At that point in time, you would have not usually have seen kilts worn in major cities outside of a military context. In fact you would have been *less* likely to see them than today – the wearing of (civilian) kilts has become more common in modern times and the idea of people wearing them for eg. wedding, funerals and social events really caught on after WWI and especially WWII – it is not incorrect to say that modern kilt wearing mostly derives from a military context.
So for many of the soldiers in WWI, while they would have been *aware* of the kilt, the first time they wore it would in most cases have been when they were enlisted – it would have been very unlikely to have been something they wore frequently in normal life.