Giles

I wore a kilt to a climate protest, just for the hell of it, and it changed my life. A Scotsman stopped me in the street and said, “Aye, that’s what this movement needs, its own clan tartan!” It was none other than Loftus McLeod of Skye, the fearless freedom fighter who founded the Liberation Kilt Company to fight 18th-Century injustices, earning him the 1781 Disturber of the Peace Award.

 

 

Following his example, a group of us were arrested on Capitol Hill for protesting the hijacking of the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill by fossil fuel interests. Sitting in a DC jail, we realized that what our fractured movement needed was a unifying aesthetic that anyone could wear, regardless of what group they belonged to. A climate change tartan!


Named in honor of Dr. Charles Keeling, the climate scientist, our Keeling tartan was worn at COP26 by the entire World Wildlife Fund delegation, including Eliud Kipchoge, world champion marathon runner.


Feeling inspired, we set about designing tartans for various other movements, fighting human trafficking (Blueheart tartan), the persecution of writers (Havel tartan), nuclear proliferation (Yamaguchi tartan), inequality (Liberty Square tartan), authoritarianism (Tahrir tartan), and other modern scourges.


Now in its 10th year, our Rebel Tartan Project empowers students from the UK, Japan, China, India, France and other nations to confront global issues in radically creative ways. 

We finally got around to building this store, offering kilts, scarves, and cloth by the yard, and quirky shirts and mugs featuring 'Skelton' (the kilted skeleton) - launched at an Oxford University student gig in March 2024.


With your first purchase you’ll receive a personalized Liberation Kilt Company Certificate of Membership, signed by none other than Loftus McLeod of Skye!


We're a Benefit Corporation, for people who refuse to identify with any group but team humanity (nobody wins unless everybody wins, as Springsteen said). We donate a portion of our profits to charities such as PEN International, the literary society.


Thank you and welcome! ~ Giles.