Kilt Blog

A note to those men who are not only too insecure to wear the kilt, but are so insecure in their own masculinity that they would ridicule those of us who have abandoned trouser tyranny… If you are too drunk to speak, its best to keep your fat mouth shut!

Last night, around midnight, my wife and I were walking through downtown Santa Fe, past a number of bars. Of course most people, us included, had been drinking a bit. One jerk of a guy, I suppose, couldn’t hold his liquor and yelled out, loudly, slurred and in a very sarcastic tone - “Hey Dude! Nice SHIRT!”. Oops. Fail! His friends then razzed him over it.

In the past I said that I have a pretty liberal definition of what is a kilt . And I should be clear up front, that the Blaklader Swedish Work “Kilt” doesn’t fit even my criteria. I suppose that it is a man’s work skirt, and perhaps a useful garment to some, but I was rather disappointed with mine.

One thing I think is important in deciding if a garment is a kilt is whether it has pleats. The Blaklader sort of has pleats, but not really. I can’t consider 1/2 inch deep a pleat, they are more like poorly sewn wrinkles in a cone of fabric; a kilt should have pleats with some depth that continue up to the waistline and taper to shape the fall. This man skirt doesn’t. To make matters worse, I really can not tell how the designer intended some of these “pleat-lets” to lay.

Another thing, which I now realize is important in a kilt, but never gave much thought to in the past: a kilt must taper at the fell so that weight is evenly distributed across a wide area. The Blaklader closes with four buttons along the waistline, distributing all of the pressure over a narrow band. It fits in the waist like a poorly made pair of trousers.

Not everything about the Blaklader is this poor. There is a wonderful number of pockets. I do wish that some of them closed more securely. I wouldn’t put my wallet or mobile in the outer front pockets, but they would make fine pouches for nails, screws, or even a notepad.

One last thought. This is a cheaper work “kilt” than a Utilikilt Workman model, about half the cost. It does have a hammer loop. If a man really needed a garment easy on his manhood while working, it could serve that purpose. I would not say it is even close to half as nice as a Utilikilt Workman, but for some men the price might make it the only choice. The safety model comes in dayglow and might actually be useful for directing traffic; gawking motorists might even be entertained, rather than merely annoyed, while awaiting their turn to drive through a road project.

Since I purchased my Blaklader, they now have a retailer in the United States , The New Worker seems to stock the Blaklader Workman’s “kilt”, albeit in black only.

The Good: It is cheap and has lots of pockets. It could prove useful as an unbifricated garment for workmen. I wouldn’t care if I got paint or motor-oil on it.

The Bad: It fits poorly in the waist and has no real pleats. Some pockets are like pouches and not very secure at holding valuables. Ugly. Not really a kilt, rather a strange looking man skirt.

Overall rating: D, for disappointing.