Kilt pride

We've blogged about kilts before and they've once again come on to our radar with the story that a man from Halesowen has designed two brand new plaid patterns for Halesowen and the Black Country to show his pride for his place of birth.

Far from just being a garment worn by the Scottish they can be found as far south as Cornwall or, as the story shows, in the midlands, and the fact people choose to show their pride for somewhere through their clothing is another reminder of why the right look is so important.

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...