USA kilts vs. Celtic Croft kilts

[Alan H]

I have a USA Kilts Casual and I love it for certain things....backpacking, throwing heavy stuff at the games, hiking, things like that. It's a great kilt for pub crawling, if you're into that. It's fantastic in hot weather and the sewn-down pleats restore themselves in a flash. It was my second kilt and I still wear it in the summer, and I love it.

That said, it's definitely a casual kilt and I wouldn't wear it to anything like a "nice" occasion any more, though I have worn it in that manner in the past. Now I know a bit more! So if you want a real knockaround, then get a casual. If you want something you can wear to the Games (NOT throwing stuff) and to more dressy occasions, then save your pennies and do what Panache says, save up for the Semi-Traditional. I"ve seen three USA Kilts semi-trads and they're great. My ONLY caveat is that I, personally would ask Rocky to use a straight selvedged edge on mine, and not fringe it. I know that the selvedge on Marton Mills PV is a bit rough, but I prefer it to the fringe. That's "just me".

I've only seen one Celtic Croft budget kilt, and it looked fine but the pleats seemed to fall out of it awfully fast.

[billmcc]

...I"ve seen three USA Kilts semi-trads and they're great. My ONLY caveat is that I, personally would ask Rocky to use a straight selvedged edge on mine, and not fringe it. I know that the selvedge on Marton Mills PV is a bit rough, but I prefer it to the fringe. That's "just me"...

The pv material USAK uses is from the Balmoral range of tartans made by Marton Mills. Standard tartans in this range come from the factory with a fringed selvedge. USAK does not make the fringe. The tartan material that USAK special orders (like the Ireland's National, American Heritage, US Navy and US Army tartans) is ordered with a straight selvedge. So, the type of selvedge your kilt will have will depend on the tartan.

[RockyR]

The pv material USAK uses is from the Balmoral range of tartans made by Marton Mills. Standard tartans in this range come from the factory with a fringed selvedge. USAK does not make the fringe. The tartan material that USAK special orders (like the Ireland's National, American Heritage, US Navy and US Army tartans) is ordered with a straight selvedge. So, the type of selvedge your kilt will have will depend on the tartan.

One more thing to add to that... OCCASIONALLY (maybe 1 out of every 8 or 10), we get a bolt of PV cloth WITH a kilting selvedge when we don't special order it. basically, MM has 2 looms... a "Frayed Selvedge" loom and a Tuck Selvedge loom (kilting selvedge). Since they weave wool AND PV, they weave ALL of their wool on the Tuck Selvedge loom 100% of the time. However, when they get backed up on PV tartan weaving on the Frayed Selvedge loom, they weave some on the Tuck Selvedge loom. I CAN NOT SPECIFY what tartans get which loom in their stock range. I just "get what I get".

If you want a PV kilt and it HAS to have a kilting selvedge, you can give me a call and I can tell you what tartans I have IN STOCK that have it and can make one for you.