Sometime in August 2024, I got a phone call from a charming gentleman we’ll call Z. He introduced himself as a representative of Loewe and wanted to order a kilt for “a VIP” who was to take part in a very important event in September and wished to do so in a kilt.

Z tells me that he’s made a little inquiry and that several people have given him my name, saying that I’m the best. Well… it was summer, and I was coming back from the garden, my hands green from pruning my tomatoes, so I burst out laughing as I imagined his face if he saw me.
I already had a lot of orders, but I must confess that the idea of a VIP wearing one of my kilts did flatter my ego, so I said yes, after asking if I could communicate about it in my circles.

Z agreed, but not before the famous event does takes place (Emmy Awards!). I gave my word and ask him to send me the material as soon as possible and to tell me what pleating the VIP wanted. Z tells me about Lochcarron and I tell him to contact them quickly so that they can send the tartan directly to my place, since I’ve been working with them for quite some time. Z is happy. Z doesn’t know anything about kilts and he tells me plainly, so he’s relying on me to guide him.
He asks me if I need anything else besides the tartan (which he doesn’t know the name of) to make the kilt. I tell him about the straps and buckles. He asks me a few questions about sizes and assures me that they’ll be delivered very quickly.

We both part enchanted, and he contacts the VIP to discuss pleating.

I skip the details of the thirty-page LVMH contract to fill out, the emails from Z for measurements, the finding out about the name of the tartan, the color of the straps, etc. … In an exchange of e-mails with Z, I dare ask him who the famous VIP is, promising to keep the info to myself until the Emmy Awards, as I’d been instructed. It was Richard Gadd.

I asked my Google buddy because the name didn’t ring a bell, but then again I’m not a reference when it comes to current VIPs. I’d watched and liked the “My Little Reindeer” series, so I wasn’t that out of it.

Everything was going well until an e-mail arrived with a photo, Z telling me that this is what the VIP wanted. How can I put it? The photo was of a man whose head had been cut off in editing, wearing something that was more of a fashion skirt than a kilt as I like to style them. I told my daughters about it. It’s always good for a mom to show off a little in front of her kids, and I had a rare opportunity to do just that. I sent them the horrible photo, just to make sure I’d fallen off the little pedestal I’d imagined. My daughter immediately recognized the photo and the guy in it, even though we couldn’t see his face. It was a photo taken in a militant context far removed from my current work. I write a quick e-mail to Z. I won’t do that. I won’t put my name on it. Of course I’ve done daring, unconventional, completely crazy things… But not this…thing. Sorry.

I apologized to Z, he would have to find someone else.

I do a little photo montage with proposals for wide pleats, but I finish my series of photos with what I think is the most beautiful, while respecting the specifications. Bingo! that’s what the VIP chooses.

I start on the kilt. Two or three days pass and Z phones me. When Richard Gadd found out who was making his kilt, he ordered a second one and Z asks me if it’s possible to do it, giving me another week for the deadline. Z is charming and very endearing. I wasn’t planning on taking a vacation anyway… And Lochcarron very quickly sent me 10m of Gunn Ancient. I didn’t send any photos for the second one for I did exactly what I wanted, respecting, of course, the wearer’s wish to have 4cm wide pleats, as for the first one.

Both kilts arrived on time and Richard Gadd chose the brighter of the two for the Emmy Awards, the Gunn.

Okay, to be honest, I would have liked him to wear it higher, to show his knees a bit, that he wore it with a real kilt jacket, but hey! there was a bit of me on that Los Angeles stage that night…