Traditional wool kilt with pockets

**CBH** · 2nd February 25, 01:09 PM

Comparing my USAKilts 5 yd wool kilt with my Pakistani kilts again, shows how different they look. The tight pleats and overall look of the wool kilt make it a little embarrassing to wear the others. Even though the general public does not have a trained eye, I think anyone would instantly recognize which is more attractive.

I am now looking in earnest for input from those with experience:

Where can I get a quality wool kilt with pockets ?

Trouser-style front pockets (hidden inside) are what I'm looking for. Not cargo or external pockets. I know its not traditional, and USAKilts won't add them. But I just can't live without the convenience.

This Scottish (I believe) place used to offer them:

https://www.houseoftartan.co.uk/scot...19&catid=12104

But they now appear to have joined https://www.scotlandshop.com/house-of-tartan

Any suggestions, except "just use a sporran" ?

**figheadair** · 2nd February 25, 03:46 PM

Pockets in a kilt are a nonsense in my view. If you want pockets, wearing trousers or a coat does the job.

**spr0k3t** · 2nd February 25, 05:45 PM

Originally Posted by CBH

Where can I get a quality wool kilt with pockets ?

You'll have to find it. Most of the ones I've seen with pockets are generally utility kilts. Some of which the quality on them is rather trash... or the wool isn't of a Scottish mill so just the fabric is sub par by itself. I'm sure if you do some digging, you might be able to find a for-hire that would be able to make it. One place to check would be Kinloch Anderson. If you are located in the mericas where utility kilts are about as common as traditional, try talking with USAKilts. While neither place may offer, they can definitely point you in the right direction for what you are after.

**MacKenzie** · 2nd February 25, 06:02 PM

You might inquire of forum owner Steve Ashton and see if anyone has picked up his contemporary kilt design.

I love my Freedom Kilts kilt with pockets.

**Steve Ashton** · 2nd February 25, 07:50 PM

It can, and has been done.

These kilts have 5 pockets each.

This kilt has 3 pockets

Unfortunately not everyone is capable of doing it well.

As far as I know there is no one currently doing what I used to do. To the same level of quality.

The same USMC Dress Blue Tartan kilt as above. While my hands are not in the pockets in this photo they are still full of all my Every Day Carry (EDC) items.
The ability to make a Traditional, 8 yard, Hand-Stitched, 16oz wool kilt with pockets, that do not show or disturb the line of the kilt is the problem, or perhaps the reason, that while I taught many to make my Hand-Crafted Contemporary Kilts, no one is offering them for sale.

**User** · 2nd February 25, 10:18 PM

Your kilts look amazing! I wish I found my passion for kilts before you retired from kilt-making.

**RGM1** · 3rd February 25, 06:23 AM

I request an under apron pocket whenever I have a new kilt built. Straight up and down near edge of apron where I can slip.my cell phone without fumbling around under the kilt. A criteria for my next cell phone is it has to fit my pockets. My experience was that putting my cell phone away in my sporrans was a hassle.

**CBH** · 3rd February 25, 07:48 AM

I knew Mr. Ashton *used* to make exactly what I'm looking for.

I didn't expect to lure him out of retirement

But I was hoping for some pointers.

Someone mentioned USAKilts, but in my original post I wrote they already turned me down.

I'll continue the quest and update y'all.

**OC Richard** · 3rd February 25, 08:13 AM

Whether learning the Highland pipes, or traditional Irish music, or a language, or about Highland Dress, I've always taken a more or less musicological/anthropological approach in which I accept the nature of these traditions, and allow them to inform me, and avoid (as much as possible) infusing my own preconceptions or biases.

The opposite of that is what I call the "Yankee ingenuity" approach, so ingrained in the American psyche, a knee-jerk urge to reject the tired hidebound traditions of The Old Country and rely on the confidence that an American, using his native ingenuity, resourcefulness, and common sense will find a better way.

So that's what Americans do, find problems to fix and apply their ingenuity to fix them, and they've come up with canvas "Utility Kilts" and nylon "Tactical Sporrans" while the Highlanders themselves remained unaware that their dress needed fixing.

I'll stay with the tradition. Sporrans have done their job for centuries.

I do employ another thing that's been part of Highland Dress since Victorian times, yet often laid aside in Scotland today: the traditional four-pocket tweed waistcoat, to give me more places to put stuff when wearing Highland Dress out and about.

If a roomy sporran and four waistcoat pockets aren't enough, the problem is with me having too much stuff, not with the tradition providing insufficient space.

I will point out that this gent, obviously inspired by the Boer War/Great War kilt apron, did add a pocket to his tweed kilt