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I’ve had a design for a kilt with the Union Flag on the front for a while now. It looks pretty good but I’ve never been 100% satisfied with it. It didn’t adjust as neatly as my Classic Skilt design and, despite trying a number of innovative solutions, there was always the propensity for the wide apron to ‘tent’ across the knees when sitting (to the delight or chagrin of the person sitting opposite).
Having a Union Flag that wraps across the pleats of a Classic design Skilt has been in the back of my mind for years but I’ve always written it off as too complicated. This year I’ve finally decided to give it a go.
I’m a stickler for accuracy so the Union Flag needs to be drawn to just the right scale so that the height of the flag matches the length of the kilt. The rectangular flag then gets translated onto the conical form of the kilt, as I do this I realise that it’s even more complex than I first thought as it requires extra adjustments to stop the diagonal lines from having a ‘saw tooth’ effect. Each pleat needs at least 3 unique pattern pieces for Red, White, and Blue. All in all it is an epic project.
Thankfully I’ve got an expert to help me. I’d like to introduce Graham my pattern cutting assistant:
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On 15 September 2011 we were delighted to receive this poetic note of thanks from Willem in the Netherlands:
Silence comes most of the time, when something hits you.!!!!
This afternoon, the mail man was ringing at the doorbell. He delivered a parcel. It’s the brown big safari cat-kilt.
The way the parcel was delivered, is more than a royal treatment.
This kilt was wrapped in a special cloth- container, where it is stored away, dust and light-free.
Then I changed kilt, and was so thrilled, I went to the village- center for shopping.
There were more than 8 reactions from men and women, and all of them were very positive.
This safari-Kilt is a very new part in my KILT-Wearing, comfortable, beautiful Flock-print, soft cloth and a very comfortable way of wearing.
It fits and feels better, than a suit.( Sorry to say, gentlemen)
No doubt about it, want quality ? BUY SKILTS.!!!!
With kind regards,
W,Jansen, The Netherlands.
A couple of days later and it sounds like he is still having fun with it:
Especially women give reactions, you don’t wanna know.
In presence of their husband, they say, it would fit her counterpart more than…………..( Sexy)
Yesterday I visited my dentist, and a woman asked me there , why I wear a skirt? I’m wearing a KILT, with your permission, madam !!!!! She apologized.
After that moment we have been talking about Kilts for about half an hour. She gave me a compliment for my patience.
Today, in a shop, a woman, that works there, came to me and said; What kind of woman is wearing that???? Was my thought, but I see you’re a man; Why do you wear this, it looks so beautiful, and I tried to explain her. Together with two other men, that work there, I told her how bouring men fashion is in the last 50 years, and I like to shake the tree a little bit.
She agreed and that gives me a good feeling. Wearing a kilt makes a man happy.
Last week in the local supermarket, I had dressed myself in a pair of trousers ( I had to do a little job) The manager told me; Go away, you’re only allowed in here when you wear a kilt, that says enough.
Kate Luck explores the relationship between trousers and feminism in the book ‘The Gendered Object‘:
‘In 1851, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Amelia Bloomer, two leading American feminist writers and activists, appeared in the streets of Seneca Falls in a costume which consisted of a sack coat, a loose-waisted dress which fell only to the knees and a pair of draped trousers, gathered at the ankle. Almost immediately they became the focus of a fierce debate about dress and gender which was carried on in the press, and in private homes, all across America. Stanton and Bloomer had challenged the presumption that only man should wear trousers and that woman’s proper garment was the skirt, a presumption so deep-seated that it had acquired the status of ‘natural’ law.’
I believe that, for many men, venturing out in a kilt involves the same level of courage and makes a similarly important challenge to the natural law of men’s proper garment being trousers. When we wear our kilts people are confronted with their preconceptions and nudged into considering what it is to be a real man.
We’ve just added a fourth City Skilt to our range. We have gone for another Prince of Wales check as the others have proved so popular. This wool fabric has a beige base colour with green and red. We’ve teamed it with brown leather straps and brown corozo buttons. It is the buttons that make this a City Skilt but we think it looks perfect for a spot of sport in the country.