To PV or Not to PV?

[Kamilavalamp]

All my kilts have been a blend of Acrylic and Wool. I have been very happy with them. However I am looking into getting a casual kilt that I can wear to the pub without worrying about spills and the like. I have seen poly viscose kilts advertised for this purpose and even some saying their Teflon coated for stain resistance. Are these Kilts all their cracked up to be? Can you really throw them in the washing machine? How well do they keep their pleats? Will they have to be repleated every time they're washed? If they still take all that work then would it be worth even getting one? To PV or Not to PV? That is the question?

[Dughlas mor]

I think a lot of people around here would tell you that PV from Martin Mills is about the best synthetic fabric available for tartan kilts. It is good looking, durable, and yes, you can throw it in the washing machine, and hang it up and straighten out the pleats pretty easily. Get a casual or semi trad from USAKilts and I don`t think you`ll regret it.

[The Wizard of BC]

There are some who would consider the Acrylic/Wool kilts to be the pub kilt. Inexpensive enough to get spilled on and buy another. The odd thing about Acrylic is that it should be the synthetic replacement for wool. However, for some reason Acrylic is almost never worsted. So it always seems to turn out more like polar fleece than kilt fabric.

Marton Mills P/V is actually a better fabric. It is the only synthetic Tartan that i will use. It will hold a crease better and look better after more washings than any other synthetic fabric.
I make kilt out of it for my rental fleet. It is able to hold up to the abuse and will machine wash up looking like new, year after year.
I have some kilts in my rental fleet three years old and that have been rented, and washed, over 25 times. They have never been touched by an iron since the day they were made and look like new.

[usonian]

I really miss my USA Kilts PV casual model. (The only reason I don't have it any more is that I lost a bunch of weight and shrank out of it.) I had it for about two years and in that time I would say I washed it half a dozen times. The pleats always stayed quite sharp, and all I had to do after pulling it out of the wash was to lay it out flat on a couple of towels and spend a few minutes smoothing the pleats out and lining them up nicely. The PV fabric feels far more like worsted wool than the acrylic kilt I have from Stillwater, and although I thankfully never had to put the teflon stain resistance to the test (no serious spills), my general impression was that the fabric wears quite well; after two years the only visible wear on the garment was a tiny bit of pilling on the front apron, and that was probably mostly my fault for being too lazy to upgrade my cheapo sporran chain to a leather strap.

[Thekiltedmohawk]

I have two P/V kilts from USAkilts. Here's the list what I have done in my kilt in the last 7 months.

Changing a flat tire on my Jeep
Going to a lot of pubs
Playing kickball
Playing flag football
Attending the social events
Going to restaurants
Hiking in the mountains
and many more.

I wash them weekly, and they still look as if it came in the package from USAK.