Tuesday 23 September 2008

Kilts: the long and the short of it

As readers of Company Clothing will know, in our September issue we featured the Blaklader High-Vis Kilt - you can see a PDF of the page here. To follow up we decided to take to the streets and find out what the general public made of this unique workwear garment - we had some interesting reactions! You can read them in October's issue of the magazine, out soon.

In the mean time it seems that we are not the only ones to get opinions on kilts. The BBC website has reported that some of Scotland's leading kilt manufacturers are meeting in Perth to discuss what is, and what is not, a genuine Scottish Kilt.

Kilt-maker Ruthven Milne is quoted in the story as saying: "A kilt is a traditional garment, not a fashion garment." Yet as our story has shown, the kilt is, like any garment, potentially the subject of fashion's eye - in this case being re-interpreted as a high-vis workwear garment.

So what do you think? What makes a kilt a kilt? Does changing it to a workwear garment cause it lose its heritage, or does it reinvigorate it and bring it up-to-date while helping to preserve it? Let us know using the comments button below...

1 comment:

DDKK said...

What about the role of the kilt as a comedy item? I'm sure a lot could be said about that.