Of course I should buy a kilt-off-the-rack if the size was right and if I liked the quality and the price seemed reasonable.

In fact, the only garments ever made to my measures are kilts and mainly because the “standardized” 24” length is just a little bit to the high side. In fact I also prefer the kilt to sit a little bit lower than “prescribed”. Therefore 23” or 22.5” is my choice but I can live with the 24” ones.

I have several off-the-rack kilts, and except for the length they seem to fit me exactly as well as the bespoke kilts. Probably I’m a rather normal shape guy, not too fat, not too slim and with a pretty average hip to waist ratio.

If I should really benefit from having anything tailor-made it should be my trousers and my shorts, in fact, but like probably most men and most of you here I live with them readymade, even if it sometimes takes a little longer to find some right fitting ones.

And right fitting is far from being a question of price. When I buy branded trousers – I almost always do and my favourites are Hugo Boss and Tommy Hilfiger – I know that 80% of what I pay for is the brand and high margins; the remaining 20% is for the “quality”, meaning I could rather easily find some non-branded ones with the same “quality”.

To me the phrase “you get what you pay for” therefore is mainly a matter of feeling secured or an excuse for paying more than you really need to. And this excuse is more than welcome if we have a special interest in something. We tend – like me - to spend more than we, from a rational point of view, should do, being it on kilts, other garments, cameras, lenses, hi-fi equipment etc.

So yes, I have bought kilts off the rack, and I will do it again. And I certainly see nothing “wrong” in it and no one living on a budget should feel wrong if all of their kilts were off-the-rack.

Greg
www.dress2kilt.eu