Scotland’s Commonwealth Games Outfits

Tell me honestly – what do you think of this design? It’s the outfit which our poor athletes are going to have to wear at the parade at the beginning of the Commonwealth Games which kick off in Glasgow on the 23rd of July.

Commonwealth Games outfit

I think it’s truly horrible, from the turquoise shirt to the tan – yes TAN socks. I really feel sorry for anyone having to don this combination. What is the tan colour referencing I wonder – the inside of a Tunnocks Caramel Wafer?!

I often think that we in Scotland shoot ourselves in the foot a bit because so often we do everything to avoid any sort of tartan, distancing ourselves as far as possible from the old fashioned shortbread tin tartanry and tat. Tartan is hardly to be seen anywhere in Scotland- unless it’s a wedding when it seems almost to be obligatory for the men to wear kilts. In fact if you go to Northern Ireland or even France it’s really surprising how much tartan you see in their streets compared with Scotland.

Let’s face it some tartans are pretty garish but I’ve never seen one as ghastly as the mixture which has been thought up by the designer. I’m presuming that she canvassed opinions on the colours from various high heidyins involved in the planning of the games, so why was nobody brave enough to say – no that’s not a pleasing colour combination, in fact none of it ‘goes’ and the colours really are not what you think of when you think of Scotland.

You can’t go far wrong with a white shirt teamed with a kilt and when you think of Scotland’s landscape and the Saltire flag then it’s blues and purples which are the natural choices to go with. It looks like the designer has decided to use colours just to look different, but it’s a mistake to go with something just because it’s a shock to the senses. The colour choices make the kilts look cheap and nasty and it’s really difficult to make wool look cheap! I’m assuming they used Scottish wool in the making.

I signed a petition online complaining about the outfits, it’s obviously too late to change things now and knowing the price of one kilt I dread to think how much these monstrosities cost, but I felt I just had to register my feelings on the subject.

The designer Jilli Blackwood is apparently internationally renowned but she seems to have just gone for the shock horror value and forgotten that our athletes are representing Scotland, they look more like an advert for dolly mixtures or liquorice allsorts in that pink and blue tartan. The women’s outfits just look so old fashioned and not in a good way.

I’m all for zany fun but there’s a time and a place for it.

The powers that be should have had a competition between schoolchildren to design the outfits, the kids would have come up with something far more enhancing I’m sure, after all it was a kid who designed Clyde, the Glasgow Commonwealth Games mascot, obviously in the shape of a thistle, and that’s a beezer!

Clyde

22 thoughts on “Scotland’s Commonwealth Games Outfits

  1. Oh, Katrina . . . I think it is truly the most hideous, horrible and horrendous outfit I have ever seen! Like you I signed the online petition, purely to make my feelings felt! I feel so sorry for the athletes having to march around in the opening ceremony wearing this absolute disaster.
    I echo Lorraine, and say . . . good grief!

    • Linda,
      I’m so glad you signed that petition too. The athletes must have been wondering whether to laugh or cry when they saw those outfits.

    • Peggy,
      I’ve looked her up and I’m ashamed to say that she was born in Glasgow apparently, I can hardly believe it. I note that she did NOT go to the Glasgow School of Art, that’s reserved for the most talented students!

  2. The color combinations are so offensive they hurt my eyes! The outfits look like something rooted out of the bottom of a thrift store box, the things no one wanted! My heart goes out to the Scots for having to endure yet another atrocity!

    • Joan,
      You’re absolutely right and those kilts would have cost a fortune too. I’m so glad my migraines aren’t so bad nowadays, they would certainly have set off a 3 dayer in the old days.

  3. Like Joan, I find the color combinations painful. And the pattern on the shirts seem to clash, though I am conservative anyway about mixing patterns.

  4. Oh my, they hurt my eyes! It wouldn’t be so very bad if they had gone with a dark green instead of that blue. I feel bad for the people who have to wear it!

  5. Oh yuck! Those blue shirts, and the tan socks are so out of keeping with any tartan far less this one. Where on earth did the designer get her inspiration from? I wonder if the tartan has been registered with the Lord Lyon King at Arms. I wouldn’t accept it as a Scottish tartan if I were him! It is a wholly laughable outfit which could have looked so much better with a white shirt and socks that matched a much more subtle tartan pattern. This is even Brigadoon’s worst nightmare!

    • Evee,
      There have been so many tartans designed in recent years but this one takes the biscuit. It is Brigadoon crossed with the White Heather Club or that thing which had the Laird o’ Coocaddens fronting it.

  6. Much as I adore turquoise, it’s hardly a color I’d ever associate with Scotland! And that caramel color is describable, but the best analogy is too disgusting to offer. But we run into similar complaints with the USA. Olympic ‘fashion’ violations.

    What is ‘beezers’ ? I’m about to go on a 2 week holiday with a family of Scots and I’m terrified of looking like an idiot in front of them…

    • Pearl,
      You’re right, that tan colour is just sh*tty! I love turquoise too but it makes me think of exotic places or the artist David Hockney as he uses it a lot – ‘swimming pool’ blue.

      Beezer is a word meaning very good, used more in the east of Scotland, likewise ‘topper’ and ‘dandy’ which you will know. You don’t often hear it now so maybe you should keep that one under your hat! A more modern way of saying that you like something is to say ‘ya dancer’! Your friends will never think you’re an idiot, just different from them and exotic!

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