Maui Weddings

Keep off our kilts: We want to copyright our tartan kilt

Ask almost anyone to think of 5 things that definitely Scottish and they will almost always include 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.

Yet you try that with a bottle of sparkling wine and call it champagne and unless it was made using the traditional method anywhere outside a relatively small area of France and you will have the whole European legal system come down on you like a ton of bricks. 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.

Over the last few years we have seen huge increases in the number of kilts coming into the country from the far east which are then being described as Scottish Kilts. The low quality is damaging our national trade and reputation as they can easily fall apart after being worn only few times. They are also very light-weight so do not have the famous swing for which the Scottish Kilt is famous.

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”.

Similar rules already exist for whisky for example which needs to be distilled and then stored in oak barrels for at least three years before it can be called Scotch Whisky. In the same way feta cheese can only be so called if it was made in Greece, and Edam cheese whose name can only be applied if it was made in The Netherlands.

Yes I put up my hands and admit that the correct plural form of kilt is kilt not kilts but we wrote for people who were perhaps unaware of this Scottish tradition and felt this would be less confusing.

In future articles we will be featuring on how you can become a Laird or Lady in the exact same traditional way used by most of the clan chiefs over many centuries.

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