Good Afternoon,

You all remember I'd asked about a box-pleat contemporary kiltmaker here a couple of weeks ago, and was pointed to Alphakilts. I'd told everyone at the end of the thread that I had ordered an Argyll (the box pleated model without cargo pockets).

Well, it arrived about 45 minutes ago via USPS Priority mail, and so far, I'm liking it. Very much.



This thing may not be a tank, but it is at least an armored personnel carrier. I was surprised at the weight of it. The stitching is neat and tidy all around. I was a little concerned when I heard that Alphakilts uses snaps on the waist instead of buckles or velcro, as the measurements need to be that much more precise. Well, either I'm getting better at measuring myself for kilts, or Daron's more precise as a kiltmaker, as this thing truly feels custom fitted: I'll only need to wear a belt for convention's sake. The fabric itself (according to the label) is a 65/35 poly-cotton blend, which bodes well for wrinkle resistance.

The kilt itself is closed by 5 snaps: two at the left side of the inner apron, 2 on the right side of the outer apron, and a 5th snap about 6 inches down and one inch in from the inner-outer apron (more on that, later).



The tops of the snaps themselves are black (I don't know if he'd color them tan for a khaki kilt or not), but are cleverly hidden directly under the belt loops on the top apron, so that none of the snaps are visible, even without wearing a belt.

As you can see on the left hand side of the picture above (the inner apron), there is a very small pocket there that measures 4"x5", so there's not a lot of room for anything there. It's also pretty hard to get to the pocket without looking... odd. So, I probably won't be using it that much.

The box pleats themselves are 3".

The outer apron (or outer-inner-outer apron) is also a little strange. Some of the other folk that had responded to my request for info earlier had called the apron "complicated". There really is no inner apron as such (the pleating just continues across the front of the body). The outer apron doesn't start at the hip the way one would expect. The box pleats actually continue all the way over to just short of the RIGHT hip. Then, the apron folds back on itself, with the box pleating stopping almost on the centerline of the body, and an apron starting from there and folding back across the top. So, when you look at it all, you've 4 layers of kilt and probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 layers of cloth in front, which means that it will probably require some level of natural disaster to get the kilt to move.

I'll try to post some more pics later on tonight with me in the kilt, and showing the outer apron a bit more closely.

Meanwhile, here's a link to an album with a few more pictures in it.