Last night we had a small office x-mas party down at the Blind Tiger Ale house. I received a lovely sweater, shirt, and tie which I wore into work today. With a kilt, of course. I'm wearing my old UK workman's which now only has four working snaps on it. It's still one of my favorite kilts though, and when I dress it up with a tie I feel like I can get away with it.
Here's a shot from this morning:
Personally I think this is a great idea. I was watching our local UPS guy unload a truck yesterday and thought, "wow, he'd be much more comfortable in a brown UK workman." When I arrived in the office this morning, I found this article in my inbox. I think it would do wonders for the American Postal Service.
I've been rediscovering my love of steampunk, especially in the realm of fashion. For those of you who know me, you may ask yourselves, "Since when has Ben had a love of steampunk?" or even "what the fuck is steampunk?"
I'll start with the second question first: Steampunk magazine (which you can find at steampunkmagazine.com says,
First and foremost, steampunk is a non-luddite critique of technology. It rejects the ultra-hip dystopia of the cyberpunks with their black rain and nihilistic posturings; while simulatenaously forfeiting the conceit of the noble savage fantasy of the pre-technological era. It revels in the reality of technology, its very beingness as oppossed the over anlyitical abstractness of cybernetics. Steam technology is the difference between the nerd and the mad scientist. Steampunk machines are real, breathing, coughing, struggling and rumbling parts of the world. They are not the airy intellectual fairies of alogorythmic mathematics but the hulking manifestations of muscle and mind. The progedy of sweat, blood, tears and delusions. The technology of steampunk is natural, it moves, lives, ages and even dies.
Now that we have that out out of the way...
In some ways my newfound love has been more a process of pulling likes together from my past into an aesthetic that makes sense with where I am now. In high school I wore bowlers and coat tails. I loved Brazil and I collected antique lighters that were far too large to be useful. I loved old bottles of liquor, anything made of brass, antique sewing machines, and anything with texture.
How does this all come together with my love of kilts? That's a good question, and it's a question I intend to answer through the creative process. My goal is to design a kilt that speaks to the steampunk aesthetic and works specifically with my lifestyle, meaning it works in ways that are useful to me.
With the help of my good friend Joel, I've begun piecing together thoughts and images, fabrics and brass fittings, and a whole slew of day dreams. I'll keep posting as the project moves along.
One of the first things I did was go to the fabric store and take pictures of anything that appealed to me. Here's a small gallery of those shots.
If anyone has any thoughts, examples, or images they'd like to share I'd love to see them. Leave a note in comments or send me an e-mail.
A slogan we can all live by. Or live with. I made this shirt on Zazzle.com and promptly ordered one. It just arrived the other day and I thought a rainy Friday was the perfect time to wear it.
If you'd like your own t-shirt just click on the image to the right or click here! The shirts are American Apparel, so they're high quality cotton tees that actually fit well compared to most online t-shirt printing places.
I've posted some pictures from this exhibit in the past, but there are many at this link that I haven't seen before. It's a great exhibit and it includes some kilts I'd definitely wear out and about. Like this one:
Also, another shot of the Vivienne Westwood kilt I posted about last week.
They have a "micro-site" through the museum that has many more photos if you're interested. You can find it here.
Over at men.style.com they're catching on to the fact that plaid is in. They've listed plaid as one of their top ten fall '08 style trends for the year.
For the full slide show click on this link.
To read the article click here.
I've been thinking about what to wear on my feet this summer when I go kilted, and I've been having a tough time coming up with things that look good and are comfortable in the heat.
On Saturday I was at a wedding where I met a young man who gave me some inspiration. Here are two shots of him, including the all important "shoe shot". I think this might work well with a kilt:
Today is the first day that I did a search of my own blog. I was trying to remember if I had posted about these boots before. Since I didn't find anything, I'll post about them now!
I've been thinking about footwear options and realizing that I mostly wear my black Frye boots. This lead me to consider the possibility that I might like other boots by Frye. The answer was a resounding yes. These boots are high on my wish list of kilt accessories:
I just found this guy on Flikr and I think he's awesome. He totally makes this kilt his own. The tie, the glasses, the shoes and the Utilikilt all just work well together to create something completely new.
This is really one of the things I'm looking for. If the kilt is no longer just a traditional Scottish thing, then how can we fit it into our lives? It all comes back to what I've been saying all along. Make the kilt work for you rather than the other way around.
You can see the rest of his photos on Flikr.
I found this photo on Flickr. And I think I like it. From the waist up it's great, no doubt about it. But the shoes have something going for them as well. He takes the Soccer hooligan kilted look and combines it with the traditional look by doing up the laces. And it works.
The Sartorialist has a few great shots of some jackets that would work incredibly well with a kilt. Both jackets are the perfect length to show off a kilt. Ideally a jacket will either come to about four inches below the top of the kilt, or about half way down. This can make it difficult to wear a normal length sports coat, but does offer some great options for outerwear.
You can view his posts by visiting thesartorialist.com
People often ask what tartan they can wear if they're not Scottish or don't have a traditional clan association. Personally I think you should wear whatever the hell you want. If you like a certain tartan then go ahead and wear it.
On the other hand, there are a few tartans out there that can traditionally be worn by most anyone. The blackwatch and brownwatch are two classic examples.
Another option comes from some more recent creations. In 2002 for example, New York City was presented with a tartan as a symbol of friendship from the people of Scotland. If you want to learn more, then read about it here.
Here's what it looks like.
So, here's what I'm wearing today. My red corduroy Utilikilt, black boots and socks, and a black and red sweater. I'm feeling festive, and figured I may as well dress it. This is definitely not the toughest kilt outfit I've ever worn, but I'm happy in it.
So, if you have a photo of you in a kilt, send it in and I'll post a picture. And, of course, critique your outfit.
Here's Joel in a red velvet jacket and tie, dark sunglasses, old school sneakers and socks, and a Utilikilt workman model . This outfit says, "you won't notice my kilt because you'll be so overwhelmed by how fucking awesome my jacket is." And it works. It's hipster in a kilt with some serious personality. Notice the maroon gym socks match the jacket and shoes? Insanity!
So, this guy is about to pull a Britney, but somehow I don't know that the world will care. I've come close to doing this as well, but luckily for me I always manage to outrun the paparazzi before they can jump in for the money shot.
So, the new J. Crew catalog and website are full of gents in kilts. Not that they're selling kilts as far as I can tell, but they're definitely falling onto the Tartan bandwagon. There's some nice photography, some nice tartan accessories, but nothing really leaps out at me.
Their tag line is "tis the season for Tartans". I couldn't agree more, but it's too bad they didn't have the nerve to go ahead and throw some kilts into the line. It would have at least been a good PR move for them, especially with all the recent celebrity kilt sightings.
Alas...
Last Monday, at the Jeffrey Banks party, I saw a guy wearing a modern Douglas kilt with a button down shirt and a long jacket. I liked the look of it and asked him if I could take a picture of him. Here's the Picture.
It got me thinking about jackets, and what I'm most comfortable wearing. I don't like wearing regular length sports coats with kilts because they just aren't the right size. My formal outfil includes an Argyle Jacket, which is great, but it's not something I'm going to wear all the time.
So, basically I've come down to choosing jackets that are either longer or shorter than a normal sports coat. Today I tried out my formal Wallace tartan, a black v-neck sweater, and a three-quarter length leather jacket from Andrew Marc, circa 1996. It feels comfortable, and I think it's going to be a regular part of my fall/winter/spring wardrobe.
Here's how it all came together:
So, last night I attended a party for Jeffrey Bank's new book called Tartan, Romancing the Plaid. It's a great book, and it was a fun party. I'll write more about it later, but for now I posted some photos from the event which took place at Saks.
Click on the gallery to the left to view them all.
I'm going to start a series of posts about what the hell to wear with your kilt. There are many great resources out there for traditional kilt wearers including instruction, rules, images, and often long rants about how people wear their kilts incorrectly. Here's a fairly clear example with some photos: hintsandthings.co.uk There are plenty more out there if you need more detailed instruction.
If you're like me though, and you just want to put on a kilt to go have a beer, have dinner, or go to Home Depot, then you may be harder pressed for good information. I'm not going to list rules, or do's and don'ts. I am going to tell you what's worked for me and what hasn't. There are times I walk out of the house saying, "Yeah, this feels great!" and there are times when I'm out and I think, "man, what the hell was I thinking?"
So for this introduction I'll start with the best piece of advice I know: fit your kilt into your own personal style rather than trying to fit your style into the kilt. This is important, because if you don't wear what's comfortable to you then you're just not very likely to put the kilt on and walk out of the house. If it feels like a costume to you, you'll never be really comfortable.
Here's an example. Say you live in Brooklyn, you're a sound mixer at a recording studio, and you hang out on the lower east side of Manhattan (when you're not in Brooklyn knocking back pints of Six Point). If you put on a full tartan and a bow tie you're going to feel silly.
So, instead, pick up a denim kilt from Howie at 21st Century, or if you have the inclination go for a black pinstripe. Put on that big belt that you normally wear with your jeans, and throw on your Chuck Taylors. Pull on a soft tee-shirt, a hoodie, and maybe a sports coat and scarf depending on the weather. Put on your gigantic sunglasses, and you're done: hipster in a kilt. You're still you, but you're 40% cooler.
If you normally wear LL Bean, then go for a Utilikilt Workman with a big wool sweater and thick wool socks and work boots. You'll still feel like you, and you'll be wearing a great kilt.
If you're a college professor, then check out the tweed selection at USA Kilts. Get a matching jacket if you're Ivy League with tenure, and wear it with a button down and a tie. Black shoes and kilt hose will finish it off fine. If you want to feel fancy get matching flashes.
So that's my advice: work your kilt into your wardrobe as it is. I'll try to post some photos of what I'm comfortable in and if you have pictures of yourself in what you're most comfortable with send them in and I'll post them.
Get your very own t-shirt! (click below)
Get your very own t-shirt! (click below)
Recent Comments