This was a few years back. I worked in a design firm, and I was lucky to have my own office, as this was a fairly small company (11 people). I am of Scottish origins and I am life long Kilt wearer. A Kilt is an article of clothing, much like pants, trousers, shirts, etc.
So I managed to make the case to the company about letting me wear my kilts to work, as I would continue to dress “professionally” and basically not make a fool of anyone. They knew my work ethic and my professionalism… or so I thought.
This went on for a couple of years until one time there was this sort of fancy company dinner, it wasn't really a black tie sort of affair but we were expected to attend very well dressed, coat, ties, the works.
So I sent an email detailing how this would be a great opportunity to show the dressier side of a kilt with all the trimmings. What followed took me by surprise, as one of the bosses came directly to my office and asked me not to wear the kilt as it would be “unprofessional.” I reminded him that I had been wearing my kilt to work, I had interacted with clients, etc. and my professionalism had never been in question. By anyone. So I told him thanks for the suggestion but I will wear my kilt, it can be really dressy.
So he came back with “well, let me put it this way, if you show up with your kilt you will put your position here in jeopardy. This dinner is not the time to wear a costume.”
I blew my lid off and had a nice back and forth with him about how a kilt is an article of clothing, not a costume, not a skirt, not anything extravagant, and finally it is my cultural attire. So if you dont want to face an EEOE for national origin discrimination, we could go ahead and threaten me with my job because you personally don't like my kilt. The tone changed immediately, no longer was I threatened with losing my job over a kilt, but the excuse now was that we would start keeping a close watch on what you do here.
And that was enough for me, I showed up to the damn dinner wearing vintage clothes, obviously so, as in mid-1960s scottish tweed jacket, whale corduroy pants, an also vintage 1950s woven necktie, and to top it off I was wearing my 1930s paperboy hat. I looked dapper and dressed to the nines, man did I look good.
Of course that was not what the one boss was expecting and he was visibly pissed, so much so he called me for an aside and basically asked me WTF? I told him this is my formal attire my dude, this is how I dress, I love vintage british style so I wore it since you objected to my kilt. He was fuming the rest of the night, and by the way, no one batted an eye, in fact a couple of compliments were received.
It was my way to say FU to the man.
BTW, I continued wearing my kilt at work until I was there no more.