Known as the ‘Wee Coonty’ by locals, Clackmannanshire is the smallest historic county in Scotland and one of the smallest council areas in population terms.

Lying on the north bank of the River Forth and bordered by Stirlingshire, Perthshire and Kinross-Shire and Fife, it is home to four impressive medieval towers (more per square mile than anywhere else in Scotland), one of the most dramatically positioned castles in Scotland (Castle Campbell) and the oldest man-made reservoir in Scotland (Gartmorn Dam).

Now Clackmannanshire looks set to give fashion hotspots such as New York City and Paris a run for their money after t-shirts branded with the county name appeared for sale on the website of Japanese clothing brand SHOO-LA-RUE. 

READ MORE: Major global fashion brand chooses Glasgow for second Scottish store

The navy blue t-shirts feature Clackmannanshire in large lettering above an illustration depicting a Beverly Hills-esque shopping street complete with palm trees. Also emblazoned on the t-shirt is the phrase ‘Clarity precedes success’ - which appears to be a phrase coined by Canadian leadership expert and bestselling author Robin Sharma - and ‘Since 1974’. 

As if that wasn’t bizarre enough, as well as Clackmannanshire, the clothing website has other t-shirts emblazoned with other Scottish town and council areas, such as West Lothian, Falkirk and North Lanarkshire. 

Photos of the t-shirts were shared on X (formerly Twitter) by Scottish football account Scotland’s Coefficient, in a post which read: “Fascinated by this. Japanese people wearing t-shirts adorned with random Scottish areas & towns, with dates of seemingly no relevance.”

One X user suggested that the t-shirts may be the work of “some Expat designer having a laugh” while another questioned if the t-shirts were in anyway were paying homage to “Scottish Samurai Thomas Glover”. 

Glover was a pioneer who left his home in Aberdeenshire at the age of 21 to establish a new life in Japan and went on to build a legacy which transformed the country.

He is credited with playing a pivotal role in the industrialisation of Japan, helping to found the shipbuilding company which was later to become the Mitsubishi Corporation and introducing the first steam railway locomotive.