Why Not? Books have been written about this topic and to see a couple of excellent ones check out:
But in a nutshell: Hemp is the best darn fibre we got on this planet and can be used to make everything from rope to cheese (yes cheese! If you don’t believe us check out: ). It’s tough, it’s soft, it looks good, feels good and is better for the environment than any other source of industrial fibre known. It also has infinite medical and pharmacological applications and is a cousin of Hops (the vine that makes beer taste good) and you can’t possibly argue with that!
Why a Hemp Kilt?
7:1
That’s the ratio of Scots around the world to Scots in Scotland.
Why? You may well ask are they such a scattered race and How? did they do it?
The Why? Isn’t so easy to answer but the How? is simple. They went out and discovered the world, conquering new lands and colonizing distant territories because they were dressed for it!
Clad in 8 yards of hand woven and hand stitched wool they boldly went forth and claimed the world as their own.
So what was this unique item of clothing that allowed them such freedom of movement?
Derived from the Roman Toga, the Kilt is a practical, elegant and comfortable form of dress with innumerable advantages over the far more pedestrian (and less comfortable) trousers.
Why else do you think the canny Scots have been trying for centuries to prevent non-Scots from wearing the kilt with elaborate rules about the right to wear a family heirloom?
But what about travel in the tropics I hear you ask?
Recent developments in production technologies have allowed us to take all the advantages of the kilt and combine them with a fabric ideally suited to the tropical climate.
Hemp has been used as ropes, sails, and in other industrial applications for millennia. It is strong, long-lasting and pliable. Until recently its use in clothing has been limited due to its stiffness. Today that barrier has been removed with a simple process which softens hemp fabric while retaining all of its strength and other useful qualities. The result is a revolution in the fabric world as hemp cloth expands to fulfill many of the roles formerly dominated by cotton, silk, wool and artificial fibres.
Hemp cloth makes for great looking clothing that also happens to be super strong, long lasting, cool in summer, warm in winter and just generally perfect!
While on a sojourn through South East Asia, China and the Himalayas in 2000, Simon M. Cusack and Adam R. Florance conceived the idea of a hemp kilt as the ideal travel outfit. Sally Jones named this item and the Hilt was born.
7:1
Is the ratio of advantages the Hilt has over any other item of travel clothing currently in use today.
The Hilt is climactically superior, ideologically sound, environmentally friendly, economically viable, imminently practicable, makes a bold statement and above all else looks great! (That’s 7! Count ‘em!)
As a British tabloid story on the revival of Ceilidh Dancing reported a few years back: “Even the least elegantly figured man can cut, if not a dash, then at least a bit of a swagger in a kilt.”
Drenched in perspiration, red in the face, covered in insect bites and scratches while clambering to the top of an ancient monument in the fierce tropical heat of South East Asia you too can cut, if not a dash, then at least a bit of a swagger in your very own Hilt.