Kilted Cultures sews heirloom clothes by hand, with customized pleating, tartan recommendation and in-home fittings throughout Japanese Ontario.
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Most individuals who purchase a kilt in Canada by no means meet the one that made it. They could plug their measurements into an internet site, choose a tartan, and watch for a field from Scotland.
Ottawa-area kiltmaker Julie Ricard doesn’t take orders on-line, however you possibly can e-book an appointment. She’ll present as much as your home with a measuring tape, unfold material throughout the kitchen desk, and ask questions like, “While you take a look at this tartan, what do you want about it?” She desires to know what color catches your eye and what a part of the sample retains pulling you again. The solutions inform her learn how to make your garment.
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“There’s an unbelievable quantity of character in how we assemble a kilt,” mentioned Ricard, who skilled in Scotland. She cuts and sews each herself, utilizing conventional strategies and eight yards of wool tartan sourced from mills throughout the UK.
Julie and her husband, Tony, run Kilted Cultures, a bespoke kilt enterprise primarily based in Barrhaven and close to Maxville. She handles the stitching; he manages fittings and logistics. Julie received her begin serving to Scottish-born kiltmaker Shirley Stapley, who based the enterprise as Marshall Bespoke Kilts earlier than passing it on to the Ricards, although Stapley stays on as govt director.
The couple now travels throughout Ottawa and Japanese Ontario for in-home appointments, typically for weddings, Highland dancers or purchasers making an attempt to match household heirlooms.
Tartan is a patterned wool material made up of horizontal and vertical strains in numerous colors. Some designs are tied to a selected household, area, or navy regiment in Scotland. In kiltmaking, the tartan’s sample determines how the material will be pleated. Some purchasers need daring stripes aligned down the again; others ask for a selected color to be positioned entrance and centre. The minimize and format of the material change relying on these preferences.
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Some purchasers need replicas of a grandparent’s kilt. Others are ranging from scratch.
“It doesn’t must be household oriented,” Tony Ricard mentioned. “We have now entry to tartans that aren’t tied to a surname.”
District tartans symbolize areas moderately than households. Nova Scotia’s tartan, formally adopted in 1955, was the primary of its type in Canada. Quebec, Alberta, and different provinces have their very own. Commemorative patterns mark historic occasions or shared identities. The Maple Leaf tartan, designed in 1964 and later acknowledged as Canada’s official tartan, makes use of pink, gold, inexperienced, and brown to mirror the altering colors of the maple leaf by way of the seasons.
Rolling Thunder, a black and blue sample, was created as a style tartan with no historic affiliation. Glen Affric is the other. Its sett, or the sequence of colours and features that repeats throughout the material, was reconstructed from a fraction of wool fabric present in a Scottish peat lavatory and dated to the early 1500s. It’s believed to be the oldest tartan ever recorded.
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The Ricards affirm you don’t should be Scottish to put on a kilt.
Tony himself is Métis. “I’ve completely no Scottish connection,” he mentioned. What he does have are many years within the Canadian Armed Forces and a working information of costume traditions rooted in navy and Highland historical past.
“Thirty years in uniform, you be taught one thing about regimental costume,” he mentioned. “I reached out to all the foremost kilt makers in Scotland. I mentioned, ‘Train me learn how to costume.’ They actually offered the farm for me.”
He rattles off suppliers like relations — Home of Edgar, Lochcarron, Strathmore, Margaret Morrison — and factors prospects to them immediately.
“We’re not gatekeeping,” he mentioned. “There’s nothing hidden right here.” When purchasers ask the place to seek out equipment, he provides names. “You need sporrans? Go to Margaret Morrison. I’ll promote Margaret Morrison day by day of the week.”
A full kilt takes about eight yards of wool, pleated by hand in types that embrace navy roll, knife edge, block stripe, or a variation formed by tartan sample and shopper choice.
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“We will bury colors, spotlight colors, and do issues with the tartan (and) with the kilt that you just’d by no means notice is feasible,” Tony mentioned.
Every garment contains what they name “progress plates,” further material sewn into the seams that permits it to be let loose or taken in over time — a sensible function for kids, dancers, or anybody anticipating to put on the identical kilt for many years.
One of many oldest clothes to go by way of Julie’s arms was a Black Watch kilt made in 1936. Its pleats had been nonetheless clear and exact, practically 90 years on.
“That tells you the legs which can be on these clothes,” Tony mentioned.
That sort of sturdiness isn’t restricted to heirlooms, he provides. One shopper wore his customized kilt day by day on a tropical seashore trip. “It repels the water,” Julie mentioned. “If it will get moist, it’s nonetheless very heat. Wool is 100 per cent good to go.”
“You possibly can put on it as shorts. You possibly can put on (a kilt) as denims. You possibly can put on it as costume pants,” Tony mentioned. “I’ve seen kilts dressed proper as much as black bow tie occasions, and I’ve seen them dressed proper all the way down to Maxville video games, strolling round with a t-shirt — and it’s the identical garment.”
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Whereas their tartan is imported, the Ricards maintain a lot of their provide chain native. Matching ties are made by a Nova Scotia seamstress. A North Grenville maker produces trews (conventional tartan trousers). A Campbell-based tailor designs go well with elements. A customized suitmaker in Ottawa outfits purchasers for formal occasions.
“Working with us, your tartan goes to match during as a result of it’s the identical bolt,” Tony mentioned. Meaning a complete household can order clothes — kilts, pants, ties, capes — minimize from one steady piece of fabric.
Kilts usually are not restricted to males, though Julie mentioned many individuals assume in any other case. “They’re 100 per cent for the entire household,” she mentioned. “There’s no girls’s model. Ladies put on the identical kilt as males do: similar minimize, similar size, similar all the pieces.”
Most brooches, kilt pins and sporrans are imported from Scotland. Costs range relying on the tartan, equipment and ending particulars. Labour alone runs round $700, and full orders can attain $1,200 or extra.
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“We wish to maintain costs as little as attainable for the purchasers,” Tony mentioned. “You come and speak to us — chances are high we’re going to beat the MSRP you’re seeing on-line. However the time and talent must be there.”
“We’re not making an attempt to make this the million-dollar alternative for all issues kilt in Canada. We’re making an attempt to fulfill a requirement within the native space. Julie is having enjoyable with it. Shirley’s having fun with it.”
“The day it turns into not enjoyable, we shut the door.”
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