Scotland: Cohen the Kiltmaker

Purists who insist that kilts are worn by men—and what the other sex wears is pleated skirts—may be upset to learn that the world’s biggest manufacturer of kilts sells them strictly to females.

From the red-brick Glasgow factory of D. & H. Cohen Ltd. come 150,000 colorful kilts annually, which ladies eagerly buy off clothing racks throughout most of the world. In the U.S., the cry is for “knee ticklers,” but for Chair man Denis Bonchy Cohen, 51, even mini-kilts are possible. “As long as it’s pleated and made to our basic design,” says Cohen, “they can have it.”

Tight Weave. Though Cohen him self refuses to don a kilt, his company owes much to the traditional attire of the Scotsman. There are now an estimated 250 tartans that Cohen can choose from, but he leans toward such old standards as Royal Stewart and Black Watch.

D. & H. Cohen Ltd. is as tightly man aged as its products are woven. Stock is held by Bonchy Cohen and his brother-in-law. Bonchy runs the show, though he is self-deprecating about his role in the company’s 55-year performance. “What attracted you to the industry, Mr. Cohen?” he asks himself aloud. Then he replies: “My father was the boss.” Bonchy ‘s father, David, immigrated to London from Vilna (now in the U.S.S.R.), where, at the age of nine, he was set to work in a cap factory by his father, who spent his own days studying at a synagogue. David mar ried a fellow capmaker, Betsy Pushkin, and 13 years later with his wife and a growing family moved to Scotland, where, at her insistence, he sat down at his sewing machine and started his own capmaking business. He later expanded the line to blazers, frocks—and, inevitably, kilts.

“Not Our Line.” The company has moved to larger quarters since then, but its traditions remain entrenched. “Our aim is to produce good merchandise,” says Bonchy, “and to keep workers employed for a full year’s production. It was an example set by my father and brother.” Though 50% unionized, D. & H. Cohen Ltd. has never had a strike. Quality standards are Scottishly rigid. One West Indian store, which asked for low-priced kilts, received the typically brisk reply: “This is not in our line of production.”

As for the future of kiltmaking, nothing would please Bonchy more than to swing his company’s skirts into places where kilts are never worn. Says he: “I’d love to see every Chinaman wearing a kilt.” But until that unlikely event occurs, D. & H. Cohen will produce kilts only for women—and leave men wearing the pants.