New Thomson Camel

[BobsYourUncle]

After a long tartan moratorium (brought on by financial troubles), our situation has stabilized enough (thanks to my wife being gainfully employed once again) for me to make a not-too-expensive purchase of a new, casual 5-yard wool Thomson Camel kilt, courtesy of our good friend and XMTS sponsor, Nick Fiddes at Scotweb.

I inaugurated my new kilt in Tokyo, at an event called Design Festa. It's a HUGE semi-annual, two day exposition of performance art, photography, painting, sculpture, crafts, fashion, and other creative works. It's held at Tokyo's Big Sight convention centre. (As usual, if anyone's curious to see the photos from the event, they're all on my website: http://zayith.com/photos/Tokyo%20Design%20Fest%2032/)

Believe it or not, I had no less than 3 Japanese WOMEN come up to me, and unabashedly ask me DIRECTLY: "Are you wearing any underwear?" Lol! (In Japanese, of course). To which, I answered in kind (in Japanese): "If you pay me ¥1000 ($12 USD/£7.50 equiv.), I'll let you find out for yourself." I'm afraid no one took me up on THAT offer... Maybe next time...

After the event, my wife and I went out for supper to a fantastic Tex-Mex restaurant nearby. The atmosphere both inside the restaurant, and outside in the shopping mall/complex was amazing... This photo is taken just outside one of the many restaurants in that area. Oatmeal hose from Brewin, and dark brown corduroy button-up shirt by Uniqlo.



Earlier in the day, as I was riding the train from our hotel to the convention center, I was fiddling around with my iPhone's camera, as I was kinda bored... And just by playing around, I managed a couple of really cool-looking abstract shots of my kilt and sporran, taken from the wearer's perspective while seated. Have I mentioned how much I love the Thomson Camel tartan?

Very, very smart! Congratulations, and thanks for sharing.

[lethearen]

I do thoroughly enjoy that tartan! And the Stewart Camel. Unfortunately, Burberry is entirely too popular in this area and its tartan is entirely to similar to your lovely kilt's for me to be comfortable wearing it. Fantastic pics, thanks for sharing!

[Mike_Oettle]

Glad to know you are kilted once more. Well done!
Regards,
Mike

[Nighthawk]

I can't get one thing out of my mind.

This tartan looks so very much like modern commercial tartans, but I guess I'm wrong. please, correct me.

No, you're right. Thomson Camel is showing up all over the place- in lining for purses, as scarves and wraps- all kinds of things!

[Paul Henry]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mipi View Post
I can't get one thing out of my mind.

This tartan looks so very much like modern commercial tartans, but I guess I'm wrong. please, correct me.

No, you're right. Thomson Camel is showing up all over the place- in lining for purses, as scarves and wraps- all kinds of things!

I suspect the tartan Mipi has seen is actually the Burberry one, rather than Thompson Camel. There has been a long and complicated, and indeed legal story about the two tartans. Burberry having lots of money and power seemed to think that it had the right to stop production of the Thompson Camel, but of course it didn't!
for more info read this?Burberry and Thompson Camel

[Zardoz]

I gotta say, That's a nice looking tartan, but I guess there is more than one "Thom(p)son Camel".

http://www.cadadh.co.uk/tartans/thomson.html

My wife has many examples of Thompson tatans (camel , dress blue, grey) around here, and none of them have the red line in the middle of the black and white, it is always in the 'field'.

[CDNSushi]

unless I'm mistaken, I have a very similar sporran - brown bag, not black.
Ebay/Internet purchase from Arena leather (or something like that)?

Yes. Arena Leather. I have two from them now. One black/burgundy, the other gray. Both were very reasonably priced, and the one in the photo is my de facto go-to sporran for most casual occasions, as the wear on it will indicate.

[CDNSushi]

I gotta say, That's a nice looking tartan, but I guess there is more than one "Thom(p)son Camel".

http://www.cadadh.co.uk/tartans/thomson.html

My wife has many examples of Thompson tatans (camel , dress blue, grey) around here, and none of them have the red line in the middle of the black and white, it is always in the 'field'.

If you wanted to know which version of the Thomson Camel tartan is being used, you could find out from Nick at Scotweb which weaver he sourced the fabric from. I do know that it was not "stock" and that there was a 6-week lead time before they could even start making my order.

I like the Thomson tartan in general -- I have a Thomson Grey scarf which would also make a very handsome kilt too...

UPDATE:

Checked the Scotweb site. There are numerous tartans listed as Thomson Camel. Red stripe on beige field is one of them, listed as Thomson Camel #2. The weaver information is as follows:
Name:
Thomson or Thompson Camel Modern
Material:
Pure New Wool
Weight:
13oz (medium)
Producer:
batli
Range:
Batli Torridon Subset
Dispatch:
9-11 weeks

Info from Tartan Register:
http://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/res...twr=&apn=&res=

[CDNSushi]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mipi View Post
I can't get one thing out of my mind.

This tartan looks so very much like modern commercial tartans, but I guess I'm wrong. please, correct me.




I suspect the tartan Mipi has seen is actually the Burberry one, rather than Thompson Camel. There has been a long and complicated, and indeed legal story about the two tartans. Burberry having lots of money and power seemed to think that it had the right to stop production of the Thompson Camel, but of course it didn't!
for more info read this?Burberry and Thompson Camel

Indeed. There is a distinct "similarity" between Thomson Camel and the Burberry Check. The article is a good source. Another good discussion was an old thread I started about the difference between the two. If you click on the link you can see an image of both, side-by-side for ease of comparison.

So as you can see, this particular kilt has been on my mind for quite some time now, and only now have I finally been able to act on my desire to own one.

Cross-link to the old (closed) discussion thread: http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...ictions-46020/

The fact is not lost on me that there are certain negative connotations associated with Burberry-themed products, and by extension this has enveloped Thomson Camel products as well. However I refuse to let that dissuade me.

Perhaps it's time to take back the tartan from the neds and chavs. lol In any event, we don't have that same problem in Japan. There are other brands associated with the so-called "yankis." (The Japanese equivalent of a chav, and having little to do with the use of the word "yankee" -- the word was borrowed from American English: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=yanki). Burberry is certainly A brand worn by such people, but it is by no means THE brand. Louis Vuitton is probably much more the brand of choice here for group (self)-identification.

Anyway. I digress. Thank you all for the kind comments. :-)