My First Kilt - Stillwater Standard Blackwatch

**uncledelphi** · 5th December 05, 06:18 AM

Greetings, everyone. My first kilt arrived on Saturday. I had just ordered it from Stillwater on Thursday. Thankfully, they had a Standard in the Blackwatch tartan in stock in my size. Here's a picture:

Now for the long story. About a month ago, I ordered two kilts. The first was a tank in the Armstrong Ancient tartan from Alexis Malcolm down in Florida. The second was a Blackwatch from an eBay seller called thumpmusic. That bloke left me positive feedback, and he is known to be slow, so I just waited. Then, out of the blue, I got a notification from PayPal that he had refunded my money. Not a word of explanation. Since my first order, I had been lurking around here, and so learned about Stillwater kilts. I gave them a buzz last Thursday. They were very friendly and helpful, and shipped out my kilt post haste.

I am very, very glad that thumpmusic decided to refund my money. For only $30 more, I was able to buy this wonderful kilt rather than a cheap eBay piece of junk.

Kudos to Stillwater! Now if only they would stock more/different tartans...

**auld argonian** · 5th December 05, 08:12 AM

Frankly, I'm glad that I stumbled across this forum before I bought a kilt because I was looking at one from vendors similar to Thumpmusic on ebay and just looking at Xmarks a few times convinced me that a Stillwater Standard would be a MUCH better place to start...and it was good advice.

Congrats on the new kilt.

best

AA

**GMan** · 5th December 05, 08:15 AM

Austin,

I bet that you are glad that you started looking around here, aren't you?

What sort of reactions are you getting?

**mbhandy** · 5th December 05, 08:32 AM

Congrats on your kilt from SWK looks great. I was like you looking for a kilt from SWK but I kept bidding on ebay and last night (Sun.) I got a Black Watch tartan 100% wool heavyweight kilt. Hope you wear it alot.

**Southern Breeze** · 5th December 05, 09:46 AM

Congrats on the kilt, it looks good. The Standerds in Blackwatch are what I wear daily at work. Now that winters here I wear a couple of the Heavyweights.

**Bob C** · 5th December 05, 09:58 AM

Congrats. I was all set to buy a Stillwater standard, but then they discontinued the Irish National tartan. I ended up buying one on eBay.

Not to hijack your thread, but my eBay kilt arrived on Saturday. I'll post a review and pics within a few days - maybe after the Binghamton kilt night on Saturday. I plan to debut it there.

**uncledelphi** · 5th December 05, 11:19 AM

Originally Posted by GMan

Austin,

I bet that you are glad that you started looking around here, aren't you?

What sort of reactions are you getting?

Yes, I'm very, very glad I found XMarks.

I haven't worn it outside my house yet. I will probably only wear it when I play Celtic gigs or go to highland games. I also plan to be kilted when I visit Ireland, Scotland, and England next year.

I showed it to my mother and she wasn't too thrilled with it. She is clan Armstrong herself and understands my desire for tradition and roots and all that, but she is having a rough time with it. She especially hates the sporran. ("Not only are you wearing a skirt, but you've got a purse, too!")

My father, though, is very supportive. I think he'll wind up kilted himself before long. He wants me to order a kilt in the Cornish National tartan and get some extra fabric to make a necktie and maybe a tam for him.

I showed the picture to some of my other friends, and they think it looks great on me. One guy with Scottish ancestry (clan Gordon) asked me to show him which tartans he should wear.

I am hosting a party on the 15th, and will be having a lot of friends over. Now, my friends span the spectrum from Agnostic to Southern Baptist to Orthodox Jewish, so the group at the party will be pretty diverse. During the party, I plan to disappear into my room, change into my kilt, and come back out playing the pipes. I'm sure there will be some interesting reactions.

Two of my most conservative Baptist friends have been the most supportive regarding the kilt. One of them has Scottish ancestry (his name is Charles Frazier, for crying out loud) so he completely understands the ethnic issue. The other is a Celtic musician with Irish ancestry, and he wants us to start a sort of pan-Celtic band and do Scottish, Irish, and Welsh stuff, as well as American Scots-Irish olde tyme.

I discussed the kilt with my rabbi, and he said it is fine as long as I don't go regimental and only wear it where appropriate (ie, don't wear it to the synagogue except on Purim). We Orthodox Jews aren't known for making fashion statements. Hmm, I wonder if I could get a tartan caftan...

(I hope this doesn't violate the prohibition of religious discussion. I've noticed that a few other people have mentioned their religion with respsect to kilting without rankling anyone.)

On the third Thursday of Jan. I will be playing my first Celtic gig in public. I hope to have my Armstrong Ancient tank by then. That will probably be my first kilted outing.

**Sherry** · 5th December 05, 11:57 AM

Originally Posted by uncledelphi

...

I showed it to my mother and she wasn't too thrilled with it. She is clan Armstrong herself and understands my desire for tradition and roots and all that, but she is having a rough time with it. She especially hates the sporran. ("Not only are you wearing a skirt, but you've got a purse, too!")

...
On the third Thursday of Jan. I will be playing my first Celtic gig in public. I hope to have my Armstrong Ancient tank by then. That will probably be my first kilted outing.

Your mom may get used to it in time. For some people, the idea is so new they need time to absorb it so that it just seems normal to them.

You'll do great! I hope you'll follow Hamish's guidelines on the socks, tho'.

Sherry

**uncledelphi** · 5th December 05, 12:08 PM

Originally Posted by Sherry

You'll do great! I hope you'll follow Hamish's guidelines on the socks, tho'.

You're quite right about the socks. I need to order some real kilt hose. I normally wear dress socks all the time, so I had to dig for those white socks.

As a piper, I guess I could get away with white hose, but since I'm not in a pipe band per se, I'll probably go with the cream-coloured hose.

Any recommendations on where I can get some cheap, non-wool kilt hose?

**Southern Breeze** · 5th December 05, 02:56 PM

Originally Posted by uncledelphi

You're quite right about the socks. I need to order some real kilt hose. I normally wear dress socks all the time, so I had to dig for those white socks.

As a piper, I guess I could get away with white hose, but since I'm not in a pipe band per se, I'll probably go with the cream-coloured hose.

Any recommendations on where I can get some cheap, non-wool kilt hose?

Most of the time I wear soccer socks. I get them at Dicks sporting Goods.
http://www.dickssportinggoods.com/fa...7495&cp=711653