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. After a rebellion against the English Government then ruling our country the English Parliament outlawed Scots from wearing national costume including tartan and the kilt. However despite this close connection with Scotland anyone anywhere in the world can manufacture a skirt that looks like our Scottish Kilt and describe it 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. The same legislation protects the Parmesan area of Italy preventing you form producing any foodstuff and describing it as Parmesan unless you are in the immediate area of Parmesan.
It now looks increasingly likely that this brand protection will be offered to our Scottish Kilt. An application has been made to the European parliament to have the Scottish Kilt granted this same designated area protection. This would mean only kilts that have been sewn by hand in Scotland and made from pure wool could be described as Scottish Kilts.
This has arisen because of the influx of cheap imports of kilts from the far east which are now being advertised as “Scottish kilts”. At a time when Scotland is experiencing it largest ever tourist boom people are buying these imported “Scottish Kilts” and seeing them come apart after only being worn maybe once or twice are assuming that these “Scottish products” are inferior quality so damaging our national reputation.
By tradition a quality Scottish Kilt will need around eight yards almost 8 meters of heavy pure wool to give it the strength weight and style to help it hang properly. By comparison a lightweight imported kilt will often use a thinner material and only around five or six yards of tartan type of cloth so it cannot be worn with style and looks wrong when worn. Consequently purchasers of these imports are put off buying any quality kilt as they believe the kilt does not suit them.
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”.
By comparison only whisky that has been both distilled and kept in sealed barrels in Scotland for a minimum of three years may 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.
Are you interested in learning how you can follow the exact same method used by Scottish Clan chiefs who were to become a Laird or Lady in future articles.
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