So, a couple of months ago this nice man from Minnesota and his wife came through NC on vacation and decided to visit us at the Scottish Tartans Museum. We had a very nice conversation, where I learned that they own their own specialty outdoor clothing company, and he was getting into kilt wearing.

The topic of Inverness Capes came up, and he mentioned wanting to make his own version of one, better suited to the outdoor enthusiast. He and I spent some time discussing the qualities of a good Inverness Cape, and in general had a very nice chat. He said he'd send me a sample of his cape once they were in production.

Well, this week I come in to the museum to find a nice package from Kevin Kenny of Empire Canvas, containing my very own rugged oilskin canvas Inverness Cape. All I can say is WOW! Having worn the kilt on a very regular basis for a decade now, I've never actually owned an Inverness Cape. The reason must have been because I know, in my unconscous mind, that something better was going to come along...


This thing is a beast. It reminds me of my old Australian duster that I used to wear in high school, only the canvas oilskin is heavier. It's made from 10 oz canvas, infused with oils and wax to make it completely waterproof. It's lined with a 3-ply supplex nylon lining. And the thing has pockets...


The above photo shows it with the cape flipped back. The pockets on this thing are very generous. The ones you see me sticking my grubby little hands in lie on the body just where my hands say they ought to be. But there are two additional pockets up on the chest. All four pockets snap closed, and are reenforced at the opening with a nylon webbing. Kevin tells me that this is the prototype -- the final version, he says, will have larger bellow pockets giving a greater capacity (not that the capacity of the pockets in mine is not more than ample).

Another feature -- the cape is completely detachable. Here's a picture of it being worn as a sleeveless jacket with the cape removed (and my wee son getting in on the modelling action):


At first I kind of wondered under what circumstances one might want to wear the Inverness cape sans cape, if the idea is to protect from the rain. Kevin's answer was that after the rain is over, you might still need to work outside and removing the cape will free up your arms for work, while still protecting your kilt and other clothing from mud and water. Genuis!

Fellows, this Inverness cape is very heavy. I showed it to some of the guys at the museum when it arrived and all were overwhelmingly impressed. One predicted that I would be handing this on to my grandchildren to wear, the construction was that solid. No doubt this is true. The only negative comment was that this is so heavy that I'm not likely to get much wear out of it at the Highland Games here in the south during the summer months. True enough, however there are plenty of light weight nylon Inverness capes on the market that are widely available. That's not what Kevin was trying to create.

That being said, it was about 80 degrees outside when I took these photos and I was quite comfortalbe (standing still in the shade, mind you).

I love this thing, and I encourage anyone interested to take a look at Kevin's web site and contact him.
http://www.empirecanvasworks.com/
The Inverness cape is not on line yet, but I beleive he told me it would be in about a week (right Kevin?). He's a member of this forum and I'm sure he'll be adding to this thread.

In the meantime, I'll end by a couple of final pics, showing the cape completely snapped up and then one showing the upper breast pockets.