Vin Diesel's leather skirt ignites pitched battle for soul of the

ACTION hero Vin Diesel wore one when he wanted to add a macho swagger to his appearance at the MTV awards inEdinburgh this month. Madonna wore one to give her comeback tour a touch of punk. Fashionistas in London, Los Angeles and Manhattan pull one on when they need a look that's cutting edge.

But the reinvention of the traditional tartan kilt - whether fashioned from leather or denim or slung low on the hips - is far from welcomed within the ranks of those who have been making their living from Highland dress for decades.

For many, it represents a threat to the craft their families have kept alive for generations.

"It also downgrades the look," said Arlene Archibald, who made the Old Stewart kilt worn by Prince Charles on his visit to Caithness last year. "It's a shame they're going to kill off a Scottish art." Margaret Small, president of the Keith School Kiltmakers' Guild, said: "The art of producing a quality kilt is dying out."

Tension is mounting between the traditional kiltmakers who laboriously hand-stitch their woven kilts, and alternative supporters who say modern kilts, often made from alternative materials such as leather, and even run up by machine for faster production, are the way forward.

"As far as we're concerned, making kilts is an art and a craft and if it changes to be a machine-made garment, you've lost the art and the craft in it," says Ann Grant, who works for the Speyside Centre of Traditional Kiltmaking.

Certainly, many traditional kiltmakers would be reluctant to plunge into the new market. Most contacted by the Sunday Herald said they might agree to make a one-off "alternative" kilt but they certainly wouldn't boast about it.

"If one person asked me to do a denim kilt, I might do it, but I wouldn't broadcast that I did it," said Margaret Small. "I'd want to be known as a traditional kiltmaker."

A similar response came from Beverly Scarlett, a kiltmaker who lives near Moray. "If a customer wanted an alternative kilt, I would consider it. It definitely wouldn't be my trade. It would be a one- off type thing. We feel that the tradition of making the proper kilt is something we are trying to sustain. The traditional pull is enormous."

It's not an attitude easily understood by the company which provided Diesel with the black leather garment which made such an impression on the millions who tuned into the MTV awards. "A lot of these so-called purists perpetuate this myth that you have to be Scottish to wear a kilt, or you have to wear a tartan," said Howie Nicholsby, of Geoffrey (Tailor) 21st Century Kilts, who fitted the star with his kilt, as well as a Sinclair tartan that Diesel has worn privately.

"The tartans were all made up in the 1800s. These people are sad. They need to get off their high horses. It makes me proud to see people who aren't Scottish wearing kilts and we should be honoured - most people don't know that Vin Diesel's mother was a Sinclair and he was embracing his Scottish heritage."

Nicholsby, who styles himself as a revolutionary of kiltwear, launched the first alternative kilts at London Fashion Week in 1999. His family company produces handmade kilts of all varieties, with more than 80% of them in traditional styles. Even so, the Edinburgh store now finds it difficult to keep up with a growing demand for alternative designs, especially ones made of denim. Inverness kiltmaker Ian Chisholm is another who welcomes the alternative kilts as a new direction for the craft.

Although his brother Duncan was a founding member of the traditional Kiltmakers' Association of Scotland, Ian Chisholm believes new kilts could whet the public's appetite for what is often perceived as an old-fashioned form of dress. But he added: "Sometimes these garments don't have the appearance of a proper tailored Highland dress. When you see a kilt outfit that's tailored and built for the individual, that's where you see the beauty of it."

However, he conceded: "I wouldn't see the alternative kilts as a threat to the art of kiltmaking. It could be the next direction for kiltmaking. It creates an interest in Highland dress. We're all for that, within certain circumstances and without going overboard. Sometimes you'll see kilts that are called kilts, but are far too long. We term a kilt as splitting the knee-cap."

The rather vague definition of exactly what constitutes a kilt is one of the problems facing traditionalists. Although they might quibble over details, most kiltmakers agree that a kilt must be hand- sewn and hang from the waist to the knees.

Robert McBain, who trains a dozen students each year in traditional kiltmaking at the Keith Kilt School on the Moray Firth, believes the industry as a whole needs to define the kilt, come up with a set of standards and endorse it as a group.

"Every industry has its own set of standards and its own specification about what an item actually is and what it should be," said McBain. "We need the same sort of standard for when a customer buys an item, they know they are buying a genuine article."

The Kiltmakers' Association of Scotland began stamping kilts with a "quality assurance" label in 1999, when it was feared that some of Scotland's kiltmakers were beginning to produce kilts of substandard quality.

As a regulatory body, the association also seeks to establish the "highest standards" in Scottish kiltmaking. The art of kiltmaking, however, is largely subjective.

What is certain is that a large number of traditional kiltmakers are keen to distance themselves from the notion of "designer kilts" embraced at the MTV awards. Since the event, Bill Law, who oversees inspections for the Kiltmakers' Association, said he had been inundated with requests from kiltmakers who now want to join the association.

"There is a feeling traditional kilts are being exploited by the celebrity culture," he said. "I've had more phone calls in 10 days than in two years. They're not happy with what they have seen on TV."

He added: "The craze for modern kilts annoys me to an extent, but the traditional kiltmaker has been in existence for hundreds of years and will be in existence for hundreds more."

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