Page 29 - Lifestyle 2

The Black Watch and the tweed kilt pictured (right), with the sunflowers illustrated on the lining.
design life, where interpretation and invention is fundamental to my role. Very quickly my curiosity led to the development of more contemporary designs. Sometimes this was driven by necessity (adding pockets into the pleats to help budget airline travel, or creating culottes underneath so I could ride my bike), at other times ideas have come from historic research.
I find offering an alternative to tartan has been particularly appealing to women, seeking something more elegant and flattering than a version of their male counterparts formal attire.
It’s very encouraging to see a more diverse market developing for the kilt, especially one that supports independent makers, using traditional skills to produce kilts of exceptional quality, rather than factory produced fashion versions.
The majority of kilts I make use my own collection of vintage, deadstock, or end of roll textiles, which encourages responsible, resourceful production, without waste. They are an enduring, as well as versatile garment, offering a life of wear for more than one generation. This very slow, but sustainable
means of making is sadly an endangered craft, but with greater recognition from a modern audience we may hopefully sustain these skills for many more generations to come.”
Two kilts, three generations:
This was my grandad’s kilt, from his days serving as an Argyll and Sutherland Highlander. His heavyweight Black Watch has allowed a lot
of room for alteration, passing to my mum
then onto me. Altering it to fit me prompted some new additions, four more pleats, with deeper box and kick pleats at each side, a fringe edge at both sides rather than one, bespoke leatherwork with four straps, new buckles and rivets. The kilt I made for my mum is also brought in here, by using her Cheviot tweed as a piped trim. Her Cairngorm tweed kilt also includes a piece of her father’s kilt along the fringe edge and in her hand drawn lining I illustrated the sunflowers I have always associated with my mum.
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