Skirting the Issue
Here's something I recently came across that I found interesting.
My dear daughter and her mother (The love of my life) think non tartan kilts look goofy. I guess not everyone agrees...
This Article was written by Dan Nephin.
Pittsburgh-based asap contributor Dan Nephin particularly enjoys his kilt after a day spent in waders, pursuing trout.
Butler surveys his kilt stock. (AP Photo/Joseph Kaczmarek)
Thursday, 5 January, 2006, 17:41 EST, US
By DAN NEPHIN
PITTSBURGH
Michael and Jeanne Butler, owners of AmeriKilt. Mike is wearing a kilt made of a popular military camo fabric called Forrest Digital MarPat. (AP Photo/Joseph Kaczmarek)
I did a double take. Was that a guy ... in a skirt?
It was at a folk music festival, so it could have been. But the cut was wrong and the heavy black cotton twill was almost menacing. Still, the pattern, with its sharp pleats, looked familiar.
I asked the guy just what he was wearing and he handed me a business card from the maker, a Seattle company called Utilikilt. It was a kilt, but not your Uncle Angus' Black Watch plaid by any stretch, laddies.
I'm not much taken by fashion, but something about this garment appealed to me.
Fortune smiled, because a vendor at the festival was selling a slightly different version. Ninety bucks later and sporting a camouflage AmeriKilt, I joined the unbifurcated brotherhood.
That was more than two years ago and the brotherhood has grown, bonded by a desire to be unbound, so to speak.
Steve Villegas founded Utilikilt in 2002 after having created his own modern take on the ancient garb a couple years before. After getting lots of compliments on his kilt, he decided to try his hand at making them professionally. The first year, he sold about 750. Now, Utilikilt sells about 13,000 kilts annually and employs about 20 people.
Since then, roughly a dozen casual kilt makers have popped up, including AmeriKilt, based in suburban Philadelphia.
Michael Butler, who runs AmeriKilt with his wife Jeanne, said he had always admired the kilt, but didn't see much in the way of a casual style so he also decided to venture into business. Now he's seen sales increase.
"We sell all over the world. I just got an order today from Bangkok, Thailand," he said recently.
What's the appeal?
For me, it was a bit of nonconformity and the natural air conditioning. And it just looked good (I wore mine with a tuxedo jacket, cummerbund and bow tie last New Year's Eve.)
"For guys, it's a sign of strength, leadership. It takes balls to wear something different," Villegas said. "For women, they find it incredibly sexy. They love to see legs."
"It takes a man who's confident of his sexuality," he said.
Neither maker sees men in kilts as a trend.
"There's no way this can go away. Look at the history of men's clothes. How long have men's clothes been bifurcated (garments of two legs)? That's a fad," he said, listing as pantless the ancient Romans, Vikings and, of course, the Scots.
Several kilt Web sites show all manner of men in kilts. AmeriKilt's site shows two Philadelphia Eagles sporting the garment, and Butler supplied a camo kilt to a Marine bagpiper in Iraq.
Utilikilt's site also shows an array of kilt wearers including a firm of marine biologists that uses them as uniforms.
Neither kilt maker engages in much advertising. Butler says his customers find him by word of mouth and Villegas said he doesn't do mainstream advertising.
"I think the appeal is that men just by their nature like to view themselves as individuals," Butler said.
Most AmeriKilts cost $95, and special ones like corduroy or camo are $120. Utilikilts run between about $100 and $750 for an all-leather model.
"It's heavy, it's not for everyone. There's more libido built into that garment than anything I can think of," Villegas said.
And how to answer the inevitable question of what's underneath?
"Usually," Butler says, "I point out my footwear."
___
___
___
(Left) AP reporter Dan Nephin in his own AmeriKilt. (AP Photo)
(Right) U.S. Marine bagpiper First Sgt. Dwayne Farr in Fallujah, Iraq, wearing one of AmeriKilts' Marine Corps digital "MarPat" fabric kilts. (AP Photo/Courtesy Dwayne Farr)
My dear daughter and her mother (The love of my life) think non tartan kilts look goofy. I guess not everyone agrees...
This Article was written by Dan Nephin.
Pittsburgh-based asap contributor Dan Nephin particularly enjoys his kilt after a day spent in waders, pursuing trout.
Butler surveys his kilt stock. (AP Photo/Joseph Kaczmarek)Thursday, 5 January, 2006, 17:41 EST, US
By DAN NEPHIN
PITTSBURGH
Michael and Jeanne Butler, owners of AmeriKilt. Mike is wearing a kilt made of a popular military camo fabric called Forrest Digital MarPat. (AP Photo/Joseph Kaczmarek)
I did a double take. Was that a guy ... in a skirt?
It was at a folk music festival, so it could have been. But the cut was wrong and the heavy black cotton twill was almost menacing. Still, the pattern, with its sharp pleats, looked familiar.
I asked the guy just what he was wearing and he handed me a business card from the maker, a Seattle company called Utilikilt. It was a kilt, but not your Uncle Angus' Black Watch plaid by any stretch, laddies.
I'm not much taken by fashion, but something about this garment appealed to me.
Fortune smiled, because a vendor at the festival was selling a slightly different version. Ninety bucks later and sporting a camouflage AmeriKilt, I joined the unbifurcated brotherhood.
That was more than two years ago and the brotherhood has grown, bonded by a desire to be unbound, so to speak.
Steve Villegas founded Utilikilt in 2002 after having created his own modern take on the ancient garb a couple years before. After getting lots of compliments on his kilt, he decided to try his hand at making them professionally. The first year, he sold about 750. Now, Utilikilt sells about 13,000 kilts annually and employs about 20 people.
Since then, roughly a dozen casual kilt makers have popped up, including AmeriKilt, based in suburban Philadelphia.
Michael Butler, who runs AmeriKilt with his wife Jeanne, said he had always admired the kilt, but didn't see much in the way of a casual style so he also decided to venture into business. Now he's seen sales increase.
"We sell all over the world. I just got an order today from Bangkok, Thailand," he said recently.
What's the appeal?
For me, it was a bit of nonconformity and the natural air conditioning. And it just looked good (I wore mine with a tuxedo jacket, cummerbund and bow tie last New Year's Eve.)
"For guys, it's a sign of strength, leadership. It takes balls to wear something different," Villegas said. "For women, they find it incredibly sexy. They love to see legs."
"It takes a man who's confident of his sexuality," he said.
Neither maker sees men in kilts as a trend.
"There's no way this can go away. Look at the history of men's clothes. How long have men's clothes been bifurcated (garments of two legs)? That's a fad," he said, listing as pantless the ancient Romans, Vikings and, of course, the Scots.
Several kilt Web sites show all manner of men in kilts. AmeriKilt's site shows two Philadelphia Eagles sporting the garment, and Butler supplied a camo kilt to a Marine bagpiper in Iraq.
Utilikilt's site also shows an array of kilt wearers including a firm of marine biologists that uses them as uniforms.
Neither kilt maker engages in much advertising. Butler says his customers find him by word of mouth and Villegas said he doesn't do mainstream advertising.
"I think the appeal is that men just by their nature like to view themselves as individuals," Butler said.
Most AmeriKilts cost $95, and special ones like corduroy or camo are $120. Utilikilts run between about $100 and $750 for an all-leather model.
"It's heavy, it's not for everyone. There's more libido built into that garment than anything I can think of," Villegas said.
And how to answer the inevitable question of what's underneath?
"Usually," Butler says, "I point out my footwear."
___
___
___
(Left) AP reporter Dan Nephin in his own AmeriKilt. (AP Photo)
(Right) U.S. Marine bagpiper First Sgt. Dwayne Farr in Fallujah, Iraq, wearing one of AmeriKilts' Marine Corps digital "MarPat" fabric kilts. (AP Photo/Courtesy Dwayne Farr)
posted by Rick at 6:25 AM
2 Comments:
see.. i don't understand which woman said it looks "sexy" cuz dude... nuh uh
love the blog and the pics. where did you buy the kilt from?
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