The first English Kilt?

[revanslacey]

Perhaps you guys can help me. At the beginning of 2010 we started selling a St George Cross design "English kilt". (Hopefully the image below will come through.)

http://skilt.co.uk/S-kilt-ClassicStGeorge.htm



We recently found an article about another English kilt that claimed it was the first ever English kilt. Theirs was, however, launched after ours and so we have started to wonder ... is our St George Cross kilt the first ever commercially available English kilt?

Thanks.

Richard
Owner of Skilt - The London Kilt
www.skilt.co.uk

[Jordan]

We had this discusion on here about the last one, I think the concensus was no beacuse there have been English tartans in the past so one of those would have to count.

Just ouf of curiousity how much does one of those cost? If its any more than £20 personaly i think its a waste of money for something which wouldnt see much use and even less on the right side of the border

(Just my tuppence)
Jordan

[O'Callaghan]

As Jordan implies, the St. George's tartan predates both of these, although whether it is actually available is another question. I think it was designed by someone called Tartans International, and their business is merely designing tartans on commission, not making kilts or even weaving fabric, so the availability of any tartan designed by them tends to be rather limited.

If you had asked who was the first to make kilts with the St. George's cross on them in a single repeat, then that is a rather more limited question, and you seem to have had the answer before you asked the question.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

There are several English tartans that have been designed, woven, and made into kilts well before this. Some are moder modern, such as the Devon tartans designed by Roy Sheard in 1984, and some have quite a bit of history behind them, such as the Northumberland tartan, adopted as the official dress of the Duke of Northumberland's piper as early as 1760.

I think the claim of this "St. George's cross" kilt as "the first English kilt" is really more of a marketing scheme than anything else.

[revanslacey]

Thanks for letting me know about English kilts from a tartan perspective.

Perhaps I can take this opportunity to follow O'Callaghan's advise and narrow my question a little: does anyone know of any other commercially available St George's Cross kilts?

In response to Jordan, thanks for your interest. We have been selling these at £220 (including 2 removable pockets). Sold out at the moment but more on the way in the next week or so. By the way, when you say "the right side of the border" do you mean inside the M25? ;-)



Cheers,

Richard
Owner of Skilt - The London Kilt
www.skilt.co.uk