And Now The Mini-kilt

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31239, 10 December 1966, Page 5

And Now The Mini-kilt

JT had to come—the mini-kilt. In a 8.8. C. programme, Jameson Clark described a new fashion which is all the rage with American college girls and which has boosted the exports of two Scottish firms, one by 25 per cent and the other by 10 per cent. Clark recalled that, the traditional kilt, generally speaking, should reach the top of the knee-caps and scarcely touch the floor when the wearer kneeled. But the 60,000 kilts one Scottish firm exported last year, he said, were “mini all right, in fact, ‘minute’ might be a more accurate description. They’re exactly 18 inches long. “The manufacturers tell me the straight short kilt is rather ugly, but a pleated

kilt, be it ever so short, is not. I suppose it largely depends on the wearer.” Clark described the range of about 40 tartans—“ The brighter the colour the better. In North America the predominantly ice-blue of the Royal Canadian Air Force is a favourite. Elsewhere the plum colour of the ancient Culloden tartan is going very well. Knickerbockers "If you should feel the mini-kilt is a bit too daring, there’s an interesting alternative—the same firm is also exporting tartan knickerbockers for young ladies.” These were very like the plus-fours that used to be worn by men, very good for the golf course. The American retailers had specified that they should reach just below the knees and be tied with long laces reaching down to the calves. They should have a couple of baggy pockets large enough to con-

tain a bottle of whisky, a haggis or a grouse. The wearer wanted something to match all the way through, and this had resulted in another Scottish firm working round the clock to produce tartan tarn o* shanters, tartan jockey caps, tartan scarves and tartan stockings. “All this export business isn’t confined to the United States,” he said. “The craze is catching on all over Europe, in Scandinavia and elsewhere, and there is endless variety. Balaclava helmets, for example, are being exported to Africa and Burma, tam o’ shanters are in great demand in the New Hebrides, pill-box knitted caps are being made for policemen in the Far East, ski-ing caps for the Lebanon and Syria and traditional glengarries for the curlers of Canada. France, Spain, Holland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Scandinavia, Zambia, Libya, Turkey, Cyprus and Greece, they’re all getting in on the act”