The perfect fit

DOMINIC ROSKROW praises the benefits of the kilt

I have just picked my own highly personal kilt, and I don't think I have ever looked forward in such eager anticipation to a piece of clothing in my life.

To those of you who know me, hearing that clothes aren't normally high on the agenda will come as no surprise. I don't do sartorial elegance well at all.

I do hot and harried brilliantly. Put me in anything more than a t-shirt at any time between March and November and I'll make singer Tom Jones look like the Sahara Desert by comparison.

I never look cool. Ever. Nor do I ever look dapper.

I like to think that it's deliberate; that I'm staying close to my scruffy rock ‘n' roll roots, when I had long hair, earring, ripped jeans and battered leather jacket. When I tended to go to bed at the sort of time I now get up at. And mocked people in suits for being sheep as I hung out with all my long-haired, rip-jeaned, scruffy jacketed friends.

But I'm kidding myself. I'm just scruffy. Or was, until I picked up kilt and accompanying outfit.

And now, not only do I look great – even if I say so myself – but every time I put it on I feel I really am displaying a certain nonconformist and rebellious streak. I swear I grew two inches just walking up Edinburgh's Royal Mile to collect it.

Now the subject of kilts can spark controversy and debate. I'm English for a starter.

But here's the killer – I have every right to wear this kilt, and I'm very proud of it.

The reason? It's a Cornish national kilt, and I'm a Celt. Roskrow...

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• By : Dominic Roskrow
• In : Editor's View
• Issue : 11
• Page : 3
• Words : 599