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.

[Bugbear]

Don't forget the midgies!!

[beloitpiper]

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

[muirkirkca]

Canada has the Mounties, Beaver, Inuit ( Eskimo ) art, land of ice and snow, all speak French etc. and presents them all in their place. We also have a good fashion industry without getting our shorts in a knot and relying on the former. Scotland should have their own fashion industry separate from the cultural aspect without denigration of the later. Don't see why they can't maintain and develop both or is it a feeling of inferiority.

[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?

[pdcorlis]

How does a culture hold out its arms to the future without turning its back to its past? I think it can be an awkward dance. Modern Scotland is not this or that - it is this and that - thank God!

[macwilkin]

How does a culture hold out its arms to the future without turning its back to its past? I think it can be an awkward dance. Modern Scotland is not this or that - it is this and that - thank God!

Well said, Phil.

Any intelligent person knows that:

a) Modern Scotland is more than tartan, kilts, shortbread tins and tweed.
b) Highland attire's history contains many myths.

BUT, as Phil stated, why does one have to be ashamed of one's past and/or a popular image?

Not every American is a Texan or a New Yorker, but whenever an American character is shown on European TV, those are the only two states in the Union. :mrgreen: Yet I do not begrudge the cultural importance of both areas to American history, even though I am not one of them.

Likewise not every Canadian is a Mountie, or every Aussie an "Ocker" from the Bush.

I live in a region where stereotypes abound of the hill folk -- think outhouses, corn-cob pipes and XXX Jugs filled with "Old Busthead" -- yet behind the myth is a very interesting and genuine culture and deserves respect.

Regards,

Todd