custom made Prince Charlie for US $ 165

[Sciuropterus]

Having some experience with Pakistani vendors, I have the following advice:

Never, never, ever (ever) trust a photo on their website to be an accurate representation of the finished product.

If the photo looks good, it was most likely stolen from the actual manufacturers website. At least one broker (most of them are not manufacturers, even though they all say they are) in Pakistan has SWK, L&M and Lochcarron photos and plagarised text on their website. I confronted them and they denied stealing SWK photos (even though I have the hi-res originals) and claimed that they manufactured L&M's sporrans (yeah, right) so it was OK to use their pictures.

Be especially careful with jackets, chances are not good that they will fit in a flattering manner, even if the sewing is good. I have inspected many jackets from Pakistan, they usually ended up right in the dumpster. In some ways, a bad-fitting jacket is worse than a bad-fitting kilt.

Pakistani manufacturers are having a tough time satisfying knowledgable kilt-wearers, the way they have been doing things for too long is no longer cutting it. Many of them mean well and are genuinely friendly people, but there is a HUGE cultural gap, and often they just don't comprehend modern quality standards, and they are often using manufacturing equipment and methods that would qualify as historical re-enactment.



Now, to really scare you:

Here are some amateur Pakistani pipe bands. Notice the backwards kilts and soccer sox. Also notice in the lower photos, the sporrans were a photoshopped afterthought.