Mar
29
Don’t Touch Our Scottish Kilts
Filed Under Uncategorized
If you approached one hundred people and asked each of them to name something Scottish the odds are that almost everyone of them would name the tartan Kilt. Such is the close connection between the kilt and the Scottish people that Scots were banned by the foreign English government from wearing the kilt after a rebellion. Yet today any person living in anywhere in the world can set up a factory and make something that looks like a Scottish Kilt and describe it on the label as a Scottish kilt.
If however you produce a bottle of sparkling wine and call it Champagne no matter how good it tastes you will feel the full force of the law charging down on you confiscating your stock and serving you with writs to stop immediately. It is the same with Parmesan that can only be made in a small area of Italy.
Well soon that same copyright brand protection may be available to our Scottish kilt. An Scottish Nationalist Party Member of European Parliament has applied to the commissioners to have the Scottish Kilt granted this same type of protection. It would mean that if successful kilts can only be described as Scottish Kilts if they have been sewn by hand in Scotland from pure wool.
This has arisen because of the influx of cheap imports of kilts from the far east which are now being advertised as “Scottish kilts”. The effect of these cheap imports is damaging our national reputation for quality as people are buying these “Scottish kilts” believing them to have been made in Scotland and then seeing them fall apart after only being worn two or three times.
A professional kilt maker in Scotland will use around 8 metres of a heavy pure wool when making a average size kilt. His length is necessary to give the Scottish Kilt the weight to hang properly when worn by a man. The cheaper imports being made of a very light material do not hang right and many men buying the cheaper version are being put off ever wearing the real Scottish kilt entirely because of its cheap counterparts poor style and image.
It is proposed that kilts which do not meet all three quality criteria to earn the new standard can still be imported and sold as Kilts but cannot claim to be called “Scottish Kilts”.
The same rules currently apply to Scotch Whisky which needs to be distilled in Scotland and then kept in oak barrels stored in Scotland for a minimum of three years. Greece have already been able to obtain similar protection for their Feta Cheese which cannot be made outside of Greece whilst Edam cheese can only be produced in The Netherlands.
Yes before you write and complain we are aware that the plural form of kilt is kilt NOT kilts but we believed that more people would understand if we spoke about kilts rather than the proper Kilt.
If you want to experience more of the Scottish traditions you could learn about how you become part of the Scottish royalty (or at least become a Laird or Lady in future articles.