I am a 19 year old bagpiper in Western New York, and i've been playing for about 7 years now. Until about a year ago I was a member of a pipe band, and so was lucky enough to be equipped with a kilt and various other pieces of equipment for as long as i was in the band. Well, now that I'm attending college I don't have to time (or a car) to make a long trip every week to pipe band practice, and so have taken leave from my good friends (and my free uniform!) in the band.

I still play pipes individually for funerals and other events, so I am in need of a good semi-formal get-up. I luckily have managed to buy a few items of my own over the years including a sporran, hose, badge, kilt pin, and sgian dubh.

My extremely supportive and generous parents knew that I needed to get a kilt of my own, and so as a surprise christmas gift last year bought me a beautiful kilt in our family tartan! I dearly appreciated this gift, but the problem is that they did not consult me beforehand, and ended up buying me a full-sized great kilt! While the kilt is a very attractive and authentic-looking one, I don't think it is very practical for the needs of a piper-for-hire. Most of the events I am asked to play for are fairly formal, and the great kilt has a very primitive/untamed casual kind of feeling to it, which seems kind of innapropriate for use in a funeral.

Right now I am in the process of shooping for more components for my outfit online, including an argyll jacket and vest, balmoral and ghillie brogues. I have saved a decent amount of money through a couple years of fairly severe frugality, and am prepared to start making purchases. I have a very important event to play for in less than a month's time, so I have a need for some speedy purchasing and delivery right now.

Now here's my quandry. If I buy all the equipment I need aside from a new kilt, I estimate that i will have about $100-$300 left over. Ideally, I would like to buy an 8-yard 13-16 ounce woolen traditional-style kilt in my own tartan(MacIntyre) to be the centerpiece of my wardrobe, but I know this would be very hard to accomplish (as far as I know) with my economic and time constraints.

The way I see it, I have 2 options:

1)Try to wear my full-sized Great Kilt in a way that would be appropriate for formal wear(along with the argyll coat and jacket, preferably). I would love to be able to do this, because I like the great kilt, and I already own it. So far though, I havn't been able to come up with a way to wear it that doesn't look very casual or sloppy. Also, I think it might be hard to wear a great kilt with an argyll jacket.

2)Buy a less expensive pre-made kilt, possibly in PV, but preferably still in wool. I just looked at the Stillwater Kilts website, and saw the heavy woolen Black Watch kilt that is available for what seems to me like a price that would fit into my budget. If I went for this option, it would probably only be temporary, because i'm unsure of the quality/appearance of this inexpensive kilt, and am not particularly fond of the Black Watch tartan (this might seem like a nitpicky and unreasonable reason, but as someone who is going to be wearing the kilt long-term, it's probably important to have a kilt that I feel comfortable in, and I place some value on having a kilt of my own clan's tartan.) If I choose this route, I will probably start saving up again to buy a high-quality kilt in my own tartan in the future. Because I need a kilt fast though, the short-term investment is appealing.

So that's my story. I am enjoying the process of selecting an outfit, but I am somewhat stressed by the approaching deadline. If anyone has advice to offer about wearing the great kilt as a formal garment with argyll, or has some input about the possibility of buying a cheaper kilt from someplace like Stillwater, or any other advice at all, I would be extremely grateful to you.

Kiltedly yours,
Scott Wright