Le Kilt Gets A Starring Role In Dior’s Cruise 2025 Show In Scotland

Among the guests who are assembling today for the Dior Cruise 2025 show at Drummond Castle in Scotland is the young Scottish designer of Le Kilt Samantha McCoach, who’ll be sitting alongside her Italian grandmother Lena. Sam has been brought in by Maria Grazia Chiuri as the latest woman collaborator to weave her own thread – manifested in a couple of offbeat tweed kilts – into the rich tapestry of Dior’s connections with Scotland.

McCoach’s Le Kilt, originally inspired by an early-1980s New Romantics London club night, is an almost uncannily perfect fit for the element of youthful street-relevance Chiuri embeds in her collection. “Her goal was to move this tradition for a new generation, and I think she did it very well – it’s cute and young, fresh and very elegant too,” said Chiuri on a call from Edinburgh, where she was prepping before the collection was trucked 50 miles north to the gardens of the 17th-century castle in Perthshire. “She’s someone who can translate a tradition and make it desirable again. That’s always difficult to do. And,” she added, chuckling, “punk is one of the uses of tartan. And that’s always something I like.”

“It’s wild!” exclaimed McCoach, who started her micro-specialist brand of high-quality, Scottish-made kilts, cashmere sweaters, and berets with a street-spin 10 years ago. “Because it happened so organically. Maria Grazia’s daughter Rachele knew about Le Kilt because apparently she bought one of my kilts back when I started. Out of the blue, I got this call: would I like to have a meeting in London at Claridge’s? I was like… What! Yes!” Rachele Regini, having been a student of History of Art and Gender, Media and Culture at Goldsmiths University in London, is at her mum’s side at Dior as cultural and creative advisor.