Keep off our kilts: We want to copyright our tartan kilt
If you approached one hundred people and asked each of them to name something Scottish the odds are that almost everyone of them would name the tartan Kilt. There was even a time when the English Government banned the Scots from wearing either tartan or the kilt because of the strong pride Scots have about their national dress. Yet anyone in any country can manufacture something that looks like a Scottish Kilt and sell it labeled as a Scottish Kilt.
However if you make a bottle of champagne using he traditional champagne style but make it outside of a very small area of France and the law will clamp down on you immediately. It is the same with Parmesan that can only be made in a small area of Italy.
Well soon that same copyright brand protection may be available to our Scottish kilt. An Scottish Nationalist Party Member of European Parliament has applied to the commissioners to have the Scottish Kilt granted this same type of protection. It would mean that if successful kilts can only be described as Scottish Kilts if they have been sewn by hand in Scotland from pure wool.
Low priced and poor quality kilts have in recent years been exported from mainly India and China which are being advertised as Scottish Kilts even if they have seen the light of day in Scotland. The low quality is damaging our national trade and reputation as they can easily fall apart after being worn only few times. They are also very light-weight so do not have the famous swing for which the Scottish Kilt is famous.
A professional kilt maker in Scotland will use around 8 metres of a heavy pure wool when making a average size kilt. His length is necessary to give the Scottish Kilt the weight to hang properly when worn by a man. The cheaper imports being made of a very light material do not hang right and many men buying the cheaper version are being put off ever wearing the real Scottish kilt entirely because of its cheap counterparts poor style and image.
Once this legislation is in force it is proposed that kilts which do not meet all three quality standards cannot be branded as “Scottish Kilts” but may still be sold simply as kilts.
By comparison only whisky that has been both distilled and kept in sealed barrels in Scotland for a minimum of three years may be called Scotch Whisky. Looking at the European cheese industry we see similar examples with Greece being granted sole rights to the Feta cheese branding and The Netherlands protecting its Edam cheese name.
Yes I put up my hands and admit that the correct plural form of kilt is kilt not kilts but we wrote for people who were perhaps unaware of this Scottish tradition and felt this would be less confusing.
If you want to experience more of the Scottish traditions you could learn about how you become part of the Scottish royalty (or at least become a Laird or Lady in future articles.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 5:31 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.