After thinking about it long and hard I decided in December to really treat myself and buy an 8 yd kilt and Argyle package from Scotweb. I looked at other on-line sellers and decided they looked the best (this was before I joined X). I wanted the kilt in an Ancient Mackinnon and knew I would pay a premium, but thinking this would be a once in a life-time purchase, threw caution (and wallet) to the wind. I thought the measurement instructions were a bit vague and so took them to a professional dress-maker to have my measurements done. I wear a 42 regular jacket, but the measurements came out, according to the instructions, that I would need a ‘short’ jacket--this seemed strange as I don’t normally need a ‘short’, but thought maybe an Argyle is different. Likewise, I normally wear a 17 3/4 collar shirt, but as they didn’t offer in-between sizes settled on an 18 collar for the shirt, thinking a little too loose is much better than too tight. Because of the time difference I had to do the ordering and querying by e-mail, which wasn’t very satisfactory as there was a few days delay and some questions did not get answered.

After what seemed, because of anticipation, like an eternity, my outfit was shipped on the 1st of February. Scotweb has a section on their site where you can track the progress of your order. Unfortunately this was never updated and even two e-mail enquiries could not tell me how things were going. Once shipped, I was able to track it on the FedEx site and expected delivery on Monday…then Tuesday...and finally on Wednesday. FedEx had sent it to a commercial broker who refused it and then sent it back and FedEx didn’t know what to do—never mind calling the customer! After some telephone tag, it cleared customs and was delivered.

What arrived was a crushed, torn and mutilated box. Don’t know who played football with it, but the box was simply not strong enough to withstand the rigours of a trans-Atlantic flight.

Thankfully everything was still in the box, though some things were a little worse for wear. Anything not properly wrapped was crushed—including the kilt pin which was twisted and bent. I managed to bend it back into shape but it will always be a little askew.

The kilt is magnificent. The craftsmanship seems superb, and the material first rate. They included flashes from the same material, which is nice, but nothing to hold them up with. At the price paid I would have thought including at least elastic garters would have been standard. The sporran is nice, but a little smaller than it looked on the website and nothing special. The shoes fit and seem like good quality. The belt buckle is not so nice. I opted for a family crest style. The buckle is a generic one with the family crest inserted into a space on the front and held with a metal pin through the back. I will need to find a metal worker to affix it properly if I don’t want it lost.

The Jacket turned out to be (comically) too short, not only on the sleeves but also under the arms, and the shirt far too large. I don’t now how Scotweb does their measurements, but they certainly were different from what the dressmaker and I understood. As promised, Scotweb stands behind their product and will accept an exchange. However the return postage cost me $50.00 (FedEx at $70 for a 14 lb box turns out to be a bargain).

The outfit cost me $1700+, the duty, taxes and charges at customs another $490, shipping with FedEx $70, and the return postage $50. This brings the total cost so far to over $2300.00!

For this price I could have had a jacket and vest tailor made here, all of the accessories bought locally and two 8 yr kilts made by a local kilt-maker and still had enough left over to buy a round at our locals’ kilt night. The quality of the kilt is superb, but I don’t think any better than I could have had here. The added costs of shipping, duty, taxes, and the frustration of ‘made to measure’ without benefit of trying it on does not make buying from Scotland worth it. A very expensive lesson, and one I have learnt the hard way. My next kilt will be made locally.