UK invasion

[Rex_Tremende]

Last night I met a chat friend for the first time in person at the Pendledon Art Center's Final Friday gallery walk in Cincinnati. I chose to wear my olive UK original with a plaid button-down shirt and Timberland boots.

The monthly Final Fridays are when the artists who rent studios at the center host a collective open house. People arrive at the former shoe factory and warehouse, take the freight elevator up to the eighth floor and work their way down by stairs, noshing and sipping free wine as they go.

So, what's the question most frequently asked of me?

"What's the event?"

Huh?

"There was another guy here earlier wearing a kilt just like yours, only different," they explain. I heard this about a dozen times. I never saw him myself, but I can tell you he was a tall, slender, young(er), Nordic-looking, blonde construction worker, wearing a caramel workman's UK, held up by a wide belt he bought at the hardware store.

Now all the artists know what a Utility Kilt is. A couple of the guys said they want one now. In a previous post I mentioned one artist who said he was jealous of me the last time I wore my other UK. So he was there again this time, and the expression on his face told me he REEEEEAAALLLLLY wanted one, but was still unsure if he could go through with it.

Another artist claimed he was thinking about getting one now that he had seen us two in one night, but it could have been just talk - his style made it feel more like cocktail conversation. He did say more than once, however, that he thought a kilt was a masculine look. I took this to be a genuine remark, because he noted the irony of it. People who are just trying to humor you don't usually discuss things like irony.

One lady loved being able to see how the kilt looked equally good on a tall slender guy as it did on a "husky" (she said, carefully ) guy. The lesson: kilts are for everyone.

After I had been asked the event question five or six times, one exchange went like this: Me: "No, there's no event." She: "No, c'mon, what's going on?" Me: "Seriously, there's no event. Didn't you know that kilts are making a comeback?"

Two unrelated guys show up to the same event in a conservative town wearing similar, but extraordinary, clothing, acting quite natural about it. What other explanation could it be?

Regards,
Rex in Cincinnati

[Pour1Malt]

an it shuid bae the artists thot are leading the charge-

guid oan ya for showin them where tae gae!

[GMan]

I too have noticed that many an artist is into wearing the Kilt especially the Utilikilt. I can only think that it is the creative sorts that think that way, and we are creative types because of the Kilt, whether we are artists in that sense or not.

[JackK]

I too have noticed that many an artist is into wearing the Kilt especially the Utilikilt.

Maybe the big brush and paint holders on the sides of the UK

Jack

[Southern Breeze]

Here's something to think about- there's quite a few creative people here at X-Marks. There's stainedglass artisans,kiltmakers, metalworkers, muscians leatherworkers and others.

[GlassMan]

As an artist myself, I'll happily lead that charge... as long as you don't mind it being a painfully slow, hobbling charge. Sorry, the leg's been acting up today.

[longshadows]

I too have noticed that many an artist is into wearing the Kilt especially the Utilikilt. I can only think that it is the creative sorts that think that way, and we are creative types because of the Kilt, whether we are artists in that sense or not.

Maybe not being bound up physically translates to a freer flow of creativity in other spheres.

[Southern Breeze]

Maybe not being bound up physically translates to a freer flow of creativity in other spheres.

Thats my theory also.

[Roan Carter]

"Didn't you know that kilts are making a comeback?"

That is absolutely gold, ha ha ha.

I'm a painter and I like to think that the kilt has a lot to do with my artistic expression. There's just something so powerful about the cause of wearing the kilt and stirring awareness about Scotland and acceptance of its traditions. It's a good fight.