How do you go about it as a potential mill customer?

[AustinDiver]

I have a tank that was hand sewn. The cloth was from Dalgliesh. I wanted another kilt to match the first. Clan.com was sort of a pain. They messed up the weaving. They scaled the registered personal tartan differently than the original weaving. The kilts did not match. They did not ask for approval before hand.

Kinloch Anderson asks a lot of money and pushes you towards double wide weaves even when asking about options for single width (House of Edgar). The prices they quoted me today were for double wide Lochcarron. I am not knocking Lochcarron. The original inquiry was for single width options from House of Edgar.

If you are making a kilt, LochCaron will work with you. They have their own kilt makers on staff.

If I go through with this, I would rather not deal with clan.com again for custom kilts. They contract the kilt making out possibly to McNaughton or St Kilda.

Gordon Nicholson will not work with Dalgliesh. If I order the cloth and have it delivered, Nicholson would made the kilt at one point.

St Kildas helped me with a weave in PolyViscose from Marton Mills. I wanted some cloth for a few kilts so that I did not put wear on the 16 oz Tank. Marton Mills sent the cloth for the kilts to St Kildas and sent the rest to me for making table runners, etc.

I would be willing to give Andrew Elliot a try. Since I have the PVS kilts in the pattern, the perceived need is not as strong. The tank would be used for formal and the PVS could be used for more casual/less formal.


One thing to keep in mind is that none of these companies are huge by any stretch of the imagination. I saw some sales numbers of Lochcarron and I was surprised.