21st Century kilts, or Utilikilts?

[OC Richard]

Here on the USA west coast I had seen firsthand the appearance of the Utilikilt and the immediate impact it had on kiltwearing here.

The year was 2000. A guy in Seattle, Steven Villegas, created a new sort of garment and dubbed it the Utilikilt. It sort of followed the flat apron in front, pleated in back format of the kilt but took cues from trousers like side and back pockets and being held up by a belt going through belt-loops all around. The narrow front aprons fastened with a series of snaps/poppers and there were huge cargo pockets on each side.

He adamant from the get-go that his creation wasn't a Scottish kilt and had nothing to do with Highland Dress. Generally made from black, blue, or tan denim, he also offered them in camouflage and Hawai'ian prints, but stated that he would absolutely never make one in tartan.

I remember seeing them for the first time, at a Highland Games, where he had set up a Utilikilt booth. It was packed with customers, he sold tons of them that weekend.

Within a couple years we saw more people wearing Utilikilts than kilts at our local Highland Games.

He sold 750 Utilikilts in 2000. He sold 11,000 in 2003.

Within a few years his invention was being widely copied by firms in the USA, Scotland, and Pakistan.

That was the whole story, I thought. But hold on, then on another thread here I found out about Howie Nicholsby. I'd heard about and seen 21st Century Kilts in Edinburgh but I hadn't realised that Nicholsby's creation predated Utilikilts by four years.

Nicholsby comes from a long line of traditional tailors and kiltmakers. His great-grandfather was a tailor for Forsyths in Princes Street, his grandmother was a kiltmaker in the interwar years, and of course his father is a tailor and founder of the Edinburgh firm Geoffrey Tailor.

Nicholsby says that for his sister's wedding in 1996 he decided to have a different sort of kilt made. He wanted a traditional 8-yard kilt, but have it made from "silver snakeskin PVC" that he had bought in London.

This led him to found 21st Century Kilts, a firm-within-a-firm. He's dressed many celebrities who have been attracted to the unique look of his creations.

Still, Nicholsby's work is quite different to Villegas' in that he makes what are essentially traditional kilts of nontraditional fabrics, though often with enormous detached pockets (or whatever those are) on the sides.

Here on the left are three Howie Nicholsby 21 Century Kilts outfits, and on the right are two Steven Villegas Utilikilts.