Highland spring
A touch of tartan’s just the ticket for stand-out trans-seasonal style.
Though she isn’t Scottish, my mother is part of a Scottish country dancing group. I’ve joined her a couple of times and while the dancing is fun, what I really like about it is the kilts.
So when she offered me one she wasn’t using, I jumped at the chance to copy my friend and style icon Barbara Brinsley in Dunedin, a long-time kilt advocate.
Barbara is a fan firstly for the warmth, but also for the colour potential. She’s the proud owner of a military kilt that’s been pleated the wrong way, so that, rather than a sober maroon, it’s a bright, daffodil yellow.
Her fondness for yellow plaid landed her in the news recently: her outfit, which included a bright yellow Jean-Paul Gaultier jacket, prompted visiting American pop star Pink to ask if she and her plaid-clad daughter, were designers.
Barbara asks if I know which tartan my new kilt is and I’m ashamed to say I don’t.
“I quite like to know,” she says, explaining that people tend to ask.
“I run into the Scottish shop in George St: they tell me immediately and they write it on a bit of paper and I pin it inside the waistband. I know the MacPherson, that’s my clan. I had Kennedy on yesterday, which is purple and green, with purple stockings.”
Barbara tends to wear her kilts with cozy knitwear and comfortable shoes, and I tend to agree – if you’re wearing a kilt, it’s not high summer, so what better pairing?
I’ve worn this kilt/knits/flat shoes combination comfortably backstage working on a fashion show, running errands in a downpour and with a light mac on a flight.
Meanwhile, I’m knee deep in online tartan finders trying to sort out which tartan my kilt is! Drop me a line if you know.