Big Apple Turns Tartan For Top Fashion Show

Design houses like Vivienne Westwood who are enamoured with the most famous Scottish fabric, tartan, might now find themselves faced with a bit of competition, as this year’s Dressed To Kilt catwalk event showcases a Scottish students exquisite design.

Grays School of Art student Daniel Crozier, 22, will be jetting off to the US this month to see his tartan coat parading down the runway as part of New York Tartan Week. Dressed To Kilt is the highest profile Scottish themed event and one of the top three fashion shows in the world – coming right behind the glamorous Victoria’s Secret.

Daniel, a fourth year fashion design student from Aberdeen, says he’s over the moon and describes it as "an amazing honour" to have been chosen to present the tartan coat he created as part of a University project.

Support from Edinburgh’s Sakura Scotland and Aberdeen’s Thomas Blake Glover Foundation meant one hundred meters of tartan were donated to Grays School of Art to create a clan of diverse designs.

Made from Sakura’s vivid pink and green Spring tartan the coat features a corseted bodice with large puff sleeves, lace cuffs and a full-tiered skirt. Daniel’s ‘coat-dress’ is elegant yet quirky and is inspired by court portraits of Marie Antoinette. He also says he always keeps fashion legend Daphne Guinness in mind.

New York’s Tartan Week will celebrate Scottish culture until 10 April and Daniel hopes it’ll open up new opportunities for himself while promoting Scotland. "I think far too often the global scene tends to look on Scotland as a place full of freckled redheads that drink all day, not as a place with as much talent as anywhere else, and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to represent Scotland through my design."