Kilts Have Staying Power?
Ancient garb seems to be catching on with American men
By Dan Nephin
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thursday, January 19, 2006

PITTSBURGH - I did a double take. Was that a guy ... in a skirt? It was at a folk-music festival, so it could have been. But the cut was wrong and the heavy black cotton twill was almost menacing. Still, the pattern, with its sharp pleats, looked familiar.

I asked the guy just what he was wearing and he handed me a business card from the maker, a Seattle company called Utilikilt. It was a kilt, but not your Uncle Angus' Black Watch plaid by any stretch, laddies.

I'm not much taken by fashion, but something about this garment appealed to me.

Fortune smiled, because a vendor at the festival was selling a slightly different version. Ninety bucks later and sporting a camouflage AmeriKilt, I joined the brotherhood.

That was more than two years ago and the brotherhood has grown, bonded by a desire to be unbound, so to speak.

Steve Villegas founded Utilikilt in 2002 after having created his own modern take on the ancient garb a couple of years before. After getting lots of compliments on his kilt, he decided to try his hand at making them professionally. The first year, he sold about 750. Now, Utilikilt sells about 13,000 kilts annually and employs about 20 people.

Since then, roughly a dozen casual kilt makers have popped up, including Ameri-Kilt, based in suburban Philadelphia.

Michael Butler, who runs AmeriKilt with his wife, Jeanne, said he had always admired the kilt, but didn't see much in the way of a casual style so he also decided to venture into business. Now, he's seen sales increase.

"We sell all over the world. I just got an order today from Bangkok, Thailand," he said recently.

What's the appeal?

For me, it was a bit of nonconformity and the natural air conditioning. And it just looked good (I wore mine with a tuxedo jacket, cummerbund and bow tie last New Year's Eve.)

"For guys, it's a sign of strength, leadership," Villegas said. "For women, they find it incredibly sexy. They love to see legs."

"It takes a man who's confident of his sexuality," he said.

Neither maker sees men in kilts as a trend.

"There's no way this can go away. Look at the history of men's clothes. How long have men's' clothes been bifurcated (garments of two legs)? That's a fad," he said, listing as pantless the ancient Romans, Vikings and, of course, the Scots.

Several kilt Web sites show all manner of men in kilts. AmeriKilt's site shows two Philadelphia Eagles sporting the garment, and Butler supplied a camo kilt to a Marine bagpiper in Iraq.

Utilikilt's site - www.utilikilts.com - also shows an array of kilt wearers including a firm of marine biologists that uses them as uniforms.

Neither kilt maker engages in much advertising. Butler says his customers find him by word of mouth, and Villegas said he doesn't do mainstream advertising.

"I think the appeal is that men just by their nature like to view themselves as individuals," Butler said.

Most AmeriKilts cost $95, and special ones like corduroy or camo are $120.Utilikilts run between about $100 and $750 for an all-leather model.

"It's heavy, it's not for everyone. There's more libido built into that garment than anything I can think of," Villegas said.

And how to answer the inevitable question of what's underneath?

"Usually," Butler says, "I point out my footwear."


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