Off Kilter
January 19, 2008
Most German men view skirts as a somewhat mysterious girl thing better left well enough alone. But not Carlos Jösch. For this Chilean-German, the Scottish kilt is a thing of beauty and an art form. The complicated pleats. The tricky stitching. The maddening tartan fabric. Jösch loves them all.
Kilts are serious business for Jösch. He sews them by hand using imported Scottish wool and traditional techniques.
Jösch's journey to master kilt maker took an unusual route. Born in Chile, his parents fled the country for Germany in 1969. Jösch, now 40, was 3 years old at the time. While he grew up in a small town not far from Cologne, he always kept close emotional ties with his Chilean roots.
Somewhere along the way, he developed an inexplicable fascination with all things Scottish. The obsession started with interest in the bagpipes and evolved from there. Studying fashion further fueled his fascination with the precision and skill required to make kilts. He apprenticed with a Scottish dressmaker and later went on to become part of the world's very small group of officially recognized kilt makers.
Each of Jösch's hand-stitched skirts takes four days to make and costs 700 euros ($1,025). Underwear is optional, of course.