Quote Originally Posted by Galician View Post
Welcome, Gerhard, from the former New Amsterdam!

I would respond to your comment on District tartans by pointing out that using them, especially for ones outside of Scotland, would be like wearing a cap with the name of that region. It can either mark a resident or someone who wishes they were one!

I think that your wearing a kilt, regardless of the tartan, is the biggest barrier. Given that, your wearing the Holland tartan would be perfectly appropriate. Do you intend to wear your wooden shoes with it, though?

Btw, a photo of a kilt in that tartan would be appreciated.

Hi and greetings from old Mokum, Galician! (Mokum is slang for Amsterdam, like Apple is for NY). Indeed, the Peter Stuyvesant case, the former sea farer and governor responsible for the name New Amsterdam, haha!

Thank you for your advice! I would not dare to wear clogs underneath a kilt, that would be worse than sneakers or cowboy boots. It would be an interesting fusion style though, like cajun cooking combined with Chinese wok or jazz with grunge, but most of all it would be an insult to the kilt. Clogs are footwear made mostly from poplar wood, being both cheap and lasting and blessed with thermo-insulating qualities in winter. Clogs are associated with farmers in Holland and in the eastern agricultural province of Gelderland where i was born, clogs are still being made and worn on a daily basis by many farmers and garden enthusiasts. But they do look like you drag dog houses around on your feet, don't they? They're like the prehistoric Frankenstein beta-version of the contemporary cork and wood health sandals. The Dutch nickname Farmer's Nikes is quite apt, really.


I have no pics available of Holland tartan kilts myself, but there are some websites where they are shown. The site www.tartanofholland.nl was set up by the originators, two brothers active in the book publishing business. They brought out many Dutch whisky book translations for the growing market of Dutch whisky afficionados, and for that reason had many connections in those circles. Examples are the writers and connoisseurs Michael Jackson (not the dancing/singing one), Dave Broom and Jim Murray, the Dutch whisky writers and Scotland enthusiasts Hans Offringa and Robert Brillemans and the Scottish professor of economics and also whisky specialist Dr. David Wishart. The latter runs the site wishart.org and was responsible for the design of the Holland tartan. His site shows this process, as well as persons sporting a Holland kilt, like Hans Offringa did for the occasion of his wedding. The added pics give a good impression of how the woven pattern in those particular colours look in a kilt. The vivid mix may come across as rather bold and loud at first and certainly takes some getting used to, but i think that after a while the result looks fresh, with the risky un-Scottish orange being counteracted in a clever way by the royal blue. The impression from a distance is a speckled hue of autumn leaves brown and only gets at your throat when viewed from close-up.

Because there is some whisky aspect in the way this whole effort was initiated back in 2005, there is some serious marketing of Tartan of Holland products going on in all circles connected with the marketing of Scotch whisky, books and tourism. The most notable occasion is the Dutch Whisky Festival in Leiden (there are more similar festivals in Holland, but this is the best known), where the originators of Tartan of Holland promote their efforts and product range between all the distillers' and other Scottish fare stands. And surely there are many visitors who sport their kilts in Holland tartan during these festivals. But i, if i were wearing one, would rather be seen doing so in Scotland than in Holland on occasions like these, which i find to commercial for a reason. Allthough meant to express heartfelt feelings towards Scotland, i think such effort is better at home in Scotland itself. I compare this with the Four Day's Walks of Nijmegen, where people from all over the world visit Nijmegen every year in the summer, to join this truly sportive effort and walk 4 times 40 kilometres. Entire military units join this march, showing colours and flags from both Holland and their own nation or regiment, expressing a relation between the two. There is a reason for anyone to be filled with pride when watching those expressions, for those efforts are genuine and really what this is all about. It matters to be part in this and to join in, there is a true international spirit.

I met Dr. Wishart last year in the Leiden festival, he signed my book copy of Whisky Classified. Michael Jackson did me the same honour with his book Whiskies of the World. A wonderful and gentle person, who alas is no longer with us since last August.


And indeed, i consider wearing a kilt a bit of a barrier in Holland . "If you're so damned fond of Scotland, why not go and stay there? You resemble a soccer player with foreign interests! What's wrong with the country you were born in?" The Dutch are rather cold sober on subjects like these. Especially on city streets, it's okay for visiting Scots but less so for Dutch, certainly without Scottish background. "What makes you wear something like that? You don't see us -your dutch compatriots- mince around in clogs, let alone adopting some foreign attire!" That will be the general opinion here.

So that will take some change in my mind-set, i think.

Never mind that, your advice was helpful and much appreciated. Thank you very much indeed and best regards! Gerhard