It has been annoying me now for ages. My wife is a kilt maker and takes great pride in producing a hand stitched quality kilt for a customer made from materials produced in the UK.

She spends a great deal of time preparing and producing a quality authentic Scottish product made in the traditional way i.e. hand stitched.

Many companies are advertising their kilts as “Hand Finished” when in fact they are kilts produced on an industrial sewing machine and the hand finishing can consist of as little as sewing a label on to the kilt. There are also those companies on the web, and High Streets, who sell “tat” imported from the Far East, India and Pakistan who sell kilts, and I use that term “loosely”, at a price that does not even cover the cost of the material used in a quality kilt.

Many companies and this includes many of the major players, now when describing their kilts for sale will not mention the fact that their kilt is machined but check out their prices.

This practice is affecting the traditional kiltmakers who are trying to make a decent living from their skills. I feel sorry for the customer who parts with their hard earned cash without knowing exactly what they are getting for their money.

My wife has had had kilts in for alteration from customers who bought in good faith from some of the major companies. The quality leaves a lot to be desired, many thought they had bought a handstitched kilt when in fact it was a machined kilt and they paid a premium price for it. Others had a kilt which was hand sewn but with a cheap machine thread which is much weaker than the hand sewing thread my wife uses and this results in the pleats not being able to take the strain of movement and the stitches bursting and the pleats of the kilt falling apart.

I feel better now that this rant is over but if the customer is more aware of the pitfalls of purchasing a kilt they can maybe get a better value for their money.