Kilt Blog

Recently I received a comment asking that I cover the USPS postman who wanted to be able to wear the kilt while delivering mail. This story recently made NPR, the Boston Globe, and The Seattle Times after postal worker Dean Peterson, of Lacey, Washington State, USA, lobbied the National Association of Letter Carriers in Boston to include a “Male Unbifricated Garment” among the approved uniform choices for all male US Postal Service workers.

Dean Peterson, who wears the kilt for comfort rather than as a symbol of his heritage, spent his entire $1,800 tax rebate check mailing his proposal to fellow postmen prior to the conference. He also won supportive resolutions from postal workers guilds in both Washington state and Oregon. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful at winning majority support for the creation and acceptance of a postal kilt due to concerns about “safety”. This despite the fact that female postal workers may wear skirts.

Mr. Peterson, also a retired Master Sargent from the US Airforce, began wearing the kilt three years ago when his wife bought him one on a holiday to Scotland. He loved it because of its comfortable and airy nature and now owns 17 different kilts. According to his letter, “Unbifurcated Garments are far more comfortable and suitable to male anatomy than trousers or shorts, because they don’t confine the legs or cramp the male genitals the way that trousers or shorts do.” His plea to fellow postmen included a sample picture of what a postal kilt might ultimately look like, which was a Utilikilts Survival model with its side pockets snapped off.

Recently while shopping for second hand kilts on eBay, I ran across a “under the kilt penis cover pouch bag underwear scottish”. It gets worse. These “Banana Peelz” are also marketed in green with black polkadots (at half the price) to hold a woman’s iPhone in her purse.

I understand that Highland athletes might need to wear spandex shorts or underwear to keep from flashing expecting tourist’s children. But surely a bright red cock-sack is of no use for them. And to imply that somehow these remarketed cellphone cozies are somehow Scottish underwear and should be worn under the kilt… just don’t.

A note to those men who are not only too insecure to wear the kilt, but are so insecure in their own masculinity that they would ridicule those of us who have abandoned trouser tyranny… If you are too drunk to speak, its best to keep your fat mouth shut!

Last night, around midnight, my wife and I were walking through downtown Santa Fe, past a number of bars. Of course most people, us included, had been drinking a bit. One jerk of a guy, I suppose, couldn’t hold his liquor and yelled out, loudly, slurred and in a very sarcastic tone - “Hey Dude! Nice SHIRT!”. Oops. Fail! His friends then razzed him over it.

In the past I said that I have a pretty liberal definition of what is a kilt . And I should be clear up front, that the Blaklader Swedish Work “Kilt” doesn’t fit even my criteria. I suppose that it is a man’s work skirt, and perhaps a useful garment to some, but I was rather disappointed with mine.

One thing I think is important in deciding if a garment is a kilt is whether it has pleats. The Blaklader sort of has pleats, but not really. I can’t consider 1/2 inch deep a pleat, they are more like poorly sewn wrinkles in a cone of fabric; a kilt should have pleats with some depth that continue up to the waistline and taper to shape the fall. This man skirt doesn’t. To make matters worse, I really can not tell how the designer intended some of these “pleat-lets” to lay.

Another thing, which I now realize is important in a kilt, but never gave much thought to in the past: a kilt must taper at the fell so that weight is evenly distributed across a wide area. The Blaklader closes with four buttons along the waistline, distributing all of the pressure over a narrow band. It fits in the waist like a poorly made pair of trousers.

Not everything about the Blaklader is this poor. There is a wonderful number of pockets. I do wish that some of them closed more securely. I wouldn’t put my wallet or mobile in the outer front pockets, but they would make fine pouches for nails, screws, or even a notepad.

One last thought. This is a cheaper work “kilt” than a Utilikilt Workman model, about half the cost. It does have a hammer loop. If a man really needed a garment easy on his manhood while working, it could serve that purpose. I would not say it is even close to half as nice as a Utilikilt Workman, but for some men the price might make it the only choice. The safety model comes in dayglow and might actually be useful for directing traffic; gawking motorists might even be entertained, rather than merely annoyed, while awaiting their turn to drive through a road project.

Since I purchased my Blaklader, they now have a retailer in the United States , The New Worker seems to stock the Blaklader Workman’s “kilt”, albeit in black only.

The Good: It is cheap and has lots of pockets. It could prove useful as an unbifricated garment for workmen. I wouldn’t care if I got paint or motor-oil on it.

The Bad: It fits poorly in the waist and has no real pleats. Some pockets are like pouches and not very secure at holding valuables. Ugly. Not really a kilt, rather a strange looking man skirt.

Overall rating: D, for disappointing.

Like many blogs, Kilt Blog receives traffic from google searches. Mostly these are straight forward searches for terms like “Utilikilt Review”, as one would expect. But some are more interesting. Here are a few recent searches which caught my eye.

“photo of a grass skirt with a sporan” - Ok, but wouldn’t the sporran strap tear up a grass skirt?

“please find a sentences for kilt” - I wasn’t aware anyone had been sentenced for wearing the kilt since proscription ended.

“under the kilt pics” - Up-Kilts, the newest internet porn craze.

“bathroom business while wearing a scottish kilt” - Some people lift the rear pleats and fold them against their backs, holding them in place with the back of the forearm. I prefer to take mine off, or just to lift my kilt if I am urinating.

“wearing kilts on a windy day” - see the next item down…

“public up kilt photos” - enough with the up kilt photos already, ok?

“kilt length for 6 foot one person” - same as for any other person, middle of the knee cap to just above the top of the knee cap when standing

“kilt store texas” - you might need to mail order for that…

“best price for ladies tartan kilt towel” - and here I thought those kilt towels were unisex

“leather utility kilt seattle” - give Utilikilts a call, they do have a few in their store

“boyfriend wears kilt” -good for him

“pants under kilts” - sort of misses the point, doesn’t it…

“milan punks” -suddenly I feel so fashionable

My better half and I recently spent a few days in Santa Fe on a working vacation. We lived in Santa Fe for 6 weeks a few years ago while she studied hypnotherapy, and we know the town. But, often when you live someplace, you do not play tourist. It was really nice to go to O’keefe Museum and bum around downtown.

Everyone who commented loved the kilt. I wore a UK Workmans and my black Denim as well. In Whole Foods (for whom I have no love as a company) I was astounded at the response. In 10 minutes I had no less than 7 people comment on it, one person shook my hand. I missed it, but my wife overheard a man tell his young son, “Yes, he’s wearing a kilt. Just like yours and just like mine back at home.”

Wonderful, though I suppose I would get tired of the attention everyday. In Taos its more laid back, but I did have a nice cute lass shake my hand at the local bar on St. Paddy’s Day.

Santa Fe is so beautiful, I just love this picture.

While surfing for kilt news I saw a typical newspaper article about a kilt night. “Thats nice,” I thought, but then paused as I noticed some of the towns names and they really stood out. OMFG, a kilt wearer in my wife’s home town!?!?! She’s from a small Indiana farm town, the sort of place where “da boys” wear overalls to the feed store. She was startled too, and said she never saw a man in the kilt growing up. They had 17 men in attendance, which is nice, and the newspaper did a decent job with the story too. Times have changed, and for the better in this case.

Much belated due to my lovely wife’s lack of note-taking skills, “Oh, I’ll take notes dear!”, turned out to be a sum total of 12 words… Sigh, 100 years ago I could have given her “the rod” for that. Well, at least I should get past the writers block and share the kilt pictures.

While in Seattle we met fellow blogger Kilted Eric, who also has a quasi-faded podcast about the kilt. Eric is the Production Coordinator for Utilikilts and took us on a wonderful tour of their warehouse, located only a couple hundred yards from their store on Pioneer Square main store.

Pioneer square is part of the old downtown of Seattle, the part with the underground where the original settlement burnt down and was rebuilt. When the town was being rebuilt, due to the sloping ground of the mudflats it was built upon, it was decided to build it a story above the current ground level. But many merchants were not content to wait while the area was filled in, and rebuilt immediately upon the current level. After the fill was added in, there were eventually two sets of sidewalks, one at the old ground level, and one at the new. After a while seedier elements moved into the underground level, then due to an epidemic of rats, the underground was closed (though the seedy elements remained). This is relevant because the utilikilts warehouse is partly in the Seattle underground, which I found incredibly cool.

While on the tour, we saw patterns, a room with giant snap setting and riveting machines, and a room with over a dozen industrial sewing machines. We got to see a custom order kilt being sewn, and most amazingly got to see the over 3,000 Utilikilts stocked in the warehouse. We did observe one shame-filled male employee in trousers , but have kindly left that photo off of the blog since he did at least show us his kilt sitting nearby.

Just a quick update for today.

The abruptness of the Seattle trip was insane. One minute we were heading there, then we were there, then we were leaving. I think we spent as much time packing and getting to and from the airport, which is hours from home and meant staying at hotels, as we did in Seattle.

Upon getting back home I did find my Blaklader work “kilt” at the post office. I’ll review it soon, including how much VAT (I thought mail order sales from the UK to the USA are not normally charged VAT?) and extra shipping I paid on it. I have not worn it yet, only tried it on. So far I can say that the pleats are very shallow, its more of a work skirt… but there are lots of pockets which I am sure will be nice when working on the cabin.

I also got a new computer, and have spent the past couple of days setting it up. I will use that as my excuse for not having blogged enough recently

On short notice, my wife and I ended up in Seattle on business. Of course, I had to drop in on the Utilikilts store and warehouse. Kilted Eric was nice enough to give the grand tour, which will be blogged in the very near future. My wife was nice enough to buy me another Workman Utilikilt, which is great because my current one is seeing heavy use while building the cabin.

I also learned of another kilt blog from Eric, who mentioned that kiltme.com had a Blaklader review. Not only is it great to see another kilt blog out there, but its especially interesting since I have a Blaklader inbound myself.

Seattle has been odd almost to the point of being surreal. Today I also happened to meet a model from one of the Utilikilt videos, she was the barkeep where I went to kill time while my wife did her biz. Those were two very strong soda and scotches she made, btw. And a moment ago, in the hotel lobby, I met a neighbor of utilikilt’s founder. Its a big city, and yet the unbifurcated world seems so small.

Except at Utilikilts itself I haven’t seen any other kilted blokes. Surprisingly though, I have gotten a number of rude comments on the street. A young Asian woman said “Oh, what a darling skirt”, but while I am not certain that one was intended to be rude, it sure was awkward. The rest were yelled from out car windows, or across the street, with the trouser wearing sissies unwilling to even look me in the eye afterwards. This is not something I see often in New Mexico. I suppose here they must be upset knowing that kilted men get flirted with so much more often than they do.

I know that many readers will shudder at the outfit, but for the world of “high fashion” I like this rendition of Highland Dress. Not only the kilt, but the hose, jacket, cap and shoes. The t-shirt and necklace I just don’t get. I’m not saying it is practical, but it is interesting and I hope will help unstick the kilt from the relative rut of special occasion.
This outfit was shown on stage in Milan, as part of “Queen of Punk” Vivienne Westwood’s Autumn/Winter 2008/09 collection.

YES! A Swedish kilt! I love it!

As strange as it may seem, a workman’s kilt by the Swedish company Blaklader Workwear, has become a huge hit in Sweden and Europe selling over 5,000 kilts. It was even named product of the year by the Swedish Textile and Clothing Association. The kilt has been such a hit that the company is now introducing it in the UK. It is availible from online retailer Active Workwear , who appear to deliver worldwide, contact them via email to order outside of the UK mainland.

According to The Sunday Mail, the kilt was designed by Gothenburg university student Marcus Jahnke. It features two nail pockets, a hammer loop, and various utility pockets. It is made from 100% cotton and retails for £44.75, about $87.00 US, which is less than half the price of the Utilikilts Workman Kilt.

It looks a little odd, with pockets at the top of the apron, but I simply must get one. Just “to review it” for my blog, of course