Scottish Fashion Council frowns on tartan

[gu3]

"[E]vents such as Tartan Day in the US - now rebranded as Scotland Week - overlook the raw fashion talent coming out of Scotland.... We're up against that image of tartan, tweed and shortcake [shortcake?]. That's something slowly being stamped out.... But whenever you get these events happening abroad they still seem to be about tartans and kilts...." (link)

So, what do we say? A catwalk of raw fashion talent at next year's Highland Games, maybe someplace near the hammer throw?

[Jock Scot]

Well they do have a point! I love tartan,tweed,shortcake(shortbread) and whisky,but it can be overdone! I would like to think that modern Scotland is rather more than that.

[Nick the DSM]

i also see why they are like that. i think they want people to see scotland as country of things more than tartan, kilts, tweed and whisky.

[Highlander31]

The Scottish Fashion Council is missing the point on why things such as Tartan Day exist here in the U.S. The kilt, more than any other item is part of a shared heritage.

The Scottish Fashion Council is worried about the shallow world of fashion. It appears they are more interested in what fashion changes they can develop rather than the gifts Scotland has given the world. For starters, our Declaration of Independence is based on the Scottish Declaration of Arbroath. The first medical schools were founded in Scotland. Then there is Robert Fulton and his steam engine, or Bell and the telephone. Edison, while born in America, is of Scottish descent. The first Secretary of the Treasury was Alexander Hamilton.

There is no doubt in my mind that talented Scottish designers will be recognized for their work. However, let's keep our perspective. Fashion after all is something that changes with the seasons and does not have the effect on a person that an idea such as freedom does. Like it or not, the kilt and tartan they complain about are representative to the world of the ideas that Scotland has given to the world.

[ThistleDown]

Well they do have a point! I love tartan,tweed,shortcake(shortbread) and whisky,but it can be overdone! I would like to think that modern Scotland is rather more than that.

I, too, Jock. Those things for which nation or a people become famous, however, do not need to be set aside in order to show that there are other facets of the culture or the society that need applause, too. The Tartan Week thing in New York had a purpose, well met; the new Scotland Week has another and it is up to the fashion circles in Scotland (or the universities, or high-tech companies, or agricultural associations, or others) to show their faces. It is not up to the weaving and woollen industries, the distilleries and the bakers to take a back seat so they can do so.

Tartan Week isn't important (or doesn't exist) in other parts of the world. Has the Scottish non-tartan/non-tweed fashion industry stepped into this void?

[Tommy Hunt]

I, too, Jock. Those things for which nation or a people become famous, however, do not need to be set aside in order to show that there are other facets of the culture or the society that need applause, too. The Tartan Week thing in New York had a purpose, well met; the new Scotland Week has another and it is up to the fashion circles in Scotland (or the universities, or high-tech companies, or agricultural associations, or others) to show their faces. It is not up to the weaving and woollen industries, the distilleries and the bakers to take a back seat so they can do so.

Tartan Week isn't important (or doesn't exist) in other parts of the world. Has the Scottish non-tartan/non-tweed fashion industry stepped into this void?

Agreed. Not knowing a lot about Tartan Week I imagine it's a celebration of tradition. I applaud this. So much of our traditions have been lost or are being ignored. It appears to me that the intent of the Scottish Fashion Council aside from an understandable wish to promote itself, is to eliminate the popular traditional dress of Scotland.

"The perception of Scottish fashion abroad sometimes struggles," said Tessa Hartmann, founder and co-chair of the council. "We're up against that image of tartan, tweed and shortcake.
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"That's something slowly being stamped out by the likes of Christopher Kane and Graeme Black.

Stamping out a perception (or the thing itself) so vital to Scottish culture so a select few can rah rah their own brand of fashion seems a bit like cultural suicide to me.

Hartmann said that up until now several official Scottish events abroad have mismanaged Scotland by relying heavily upon the dreaded tartan.

Dreaded? There is one action universally perscribed for a thing understood as "dreaded" and that's to eliminate it. I think the Scottish Fashion Council's Tessa Hartmann is showing her true colors and her true purpose if this is indeed her sentiment.

[Carolina Kiltman]

Posted by: oldmack, Scotland on 3:49am Sun 14 Sep 08
Scotland the Brand is still around let's not loose the place here. When Scotland has something to sell and the world wants it, it will buy it. As for anything holding Scotland back, that generally speaking an irrelevant personage trying to get their irrelevant snout in to the pig’s trough a bit like the above article.

I think the above comment on the article says it all. I have not heard that the French are prepared to dismantle the Eiffel Tower and sell it to China for scrap iron! No it is a magnificent trade-mark in its own right, just as the Tartan and Kilt are Scotland's.

[Bugbear]

Don't forget the midgies!!

[beloitpiper]

I agree with Jock Scot. Although architecture isn't their strong point (see:Scottish Parliament).

[sirdaniel1975]

I agree with Jock Scot. Although architecture isn't their strong point (see:Scottish Parliament).

I would have to seriously disagree. My great grandfather studied architecture in Glasgow before emigrating to the US in 1903. Apparently his credentials were good enough to be apart of the renovation as a draftsman on the Macy's building in Manhattan.

Famed architect Franklin Loyd Wright was of Scottish Ancestry, and I attended college at a campus where the majority of buildings were his work. "Florida Southern College!"

I rather think that Scottish Parliament Building to be very modern and ambitious.