Another UK Article

[Riverkilt]

So I'm at my local small town biker rally in my black UK Workman's and two different people come up to me and ask if I've seen the article on Utilikilts in that day's paper.

The paper was the Arizona Republic published down in Phoenix 300 miles south, but for me it was pretty cool to have folks come up to me and tell me about it in our little town.

Found the article at home and found out later that its a shortened version of an Associated Press article that came out a couple week prior...but hey..its kilt press!

Ron

[KiltedBishop]

anyone know if the article is online?

[Riverkilt]

Sorry didn't think anyone cared that much...just the standard article about Utilikilts, thought it was widly distributed by AP.

Here's the link to the article in the Arizona Republic. Got some feedback that the link didn't work and they had to go to search on the website and put in Utilikilt.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepu...01kilts01.html

Ron

Heck, see if this works, here's the copy.

Utilikilt makes 'short' work of job for men


Anne Kim
Associated Press
Oct. 1, 2005 12:00 AM

SEATTLE - It's the freedom, they say. The freedom to move, to feel the breeze, to stay cool on a hot summer day.

All this freedom comes simply from banishing trousers to the back of the closet, say the men who wear the Utilikilt, a rugged modern take on the Celtic kilt.

The garment, made in Seattle by the company of the same name, adds a twist of practicality to the traditional kilt. Made with tough fabric and accessories such as cargo pockets and a hammer loop, the garment has attracted marine biologists to construction workers who often point to the comfort factor as their reason for donning the pleats. About 12,000 kilts are sold each year, said Steven Villegas, the company's founder and owner.

They've become a common sight around Seattle, especially in funkier neighborhoods and at the city's many alternative cultural events. They often are worn with chunky black boots.

"Our society has really rigid rules in what a man can wear," said Steve Phun Hadley, who wore a black Utilikilt to Seattle's annual Bumbershoot Arts Festival last month.

For Hadley, who works at an arts production company, the kilt is about bending gender rules.

Villegas, 38, made his first Utilikilt in 1996 for a more prosaic reason: He was refurbishing a motorcycle in his garage and his trousers were uncomfortable. So, he cut and sewed up his favorite pair of pants - green military field pants - to make a kilt.

"I just 'Frankensteined' together some fabric," he said from his Seattle store where kilts flap outside in the wind.

One day he absent-mindedly wore the kilt out of the house. "Someone said, 'Nice kilt.' And a girl said, 'Nice legs.' And an old lady said, 'That looks good on you,' " Villegas recalled.

Villegas describes the men who wear kilts as self-confident free thinkers.

"This person doesn't really care what you're thinking," he said.

Utilikilt now is the company uniform at Germano & Associates Inc., a firm of marine biologists who analyze a variety of sediment from fresh water to the deep sea.

"We're the only kilted marine biologists and so people always remember us when we do a job," said Joe Germano, 54, the company's president. "They're just a wonderful marketing angle."

The pockets, used to hold such tools as wrenches, screwdrivers and batteries, are practical on the field, Germano said. Trousers simply aren't as fun to wear.

Advocates of the more traditional Scottish tartan kilts are split.

Robert Laeger-Robertson, president of the Southwest Washington Scottish Highlanders Association, likes the idea.

"It presents the functionality of a kilt, and it promotes the Celtic tradition," Laeger-Robertson said.

In Scotland, Ireland and Wales, the kilt originally was worn by all men for its function: They could unhook it and use it as a blanket when they slept outside while traveling, he said.

Utilikilts give men a way to make the usually formal kilt into something work-oriented, he said.

Still, David Garman, president of the Scottish American Athletic Association, based in Los Angeles, says that Utilikilts miss the point of the tartan colors and patterns, which represent family history and tradition.

Villegas now has a utopian view of his invention despite its utilitarian beginnings.

"Utilikilts represent an opportunity to make an impact on society for the better," he said.

[KiltedBishop]

excellent thanks. who knew a split in the community could be defined from two intereviews? haha