What is the best place to buy a bespoke military style kilt?

[Patty Logan]

Hi there kilt and military aficionados!

I'm looking at getting a new kilt, after careful consideration i like to the look of "modern" military style kilts.
Where is the best place to get one made? I'm looking for a maker that can take my clan tartan preferably and build a kilt to military standards and traditions.

Thx!

[Father Bill]

You're pretty close to one of our sponsors, Burnett & Struth in Barrie, and they make them all the time from what I understand.

[OC Richard]

Be aware that the traditional Scottish military Other Ranks kilts were made from a distinctive fabric.

It was heavier than the civilian heavyweight fabric.

It had a curious and unique surface feel and look, being a bit fuzzier and more blanket-like that civilian kilting cloth.

The various tartans were made to larger sett sizes than I usually saw in examples of the same tartans woven for civilian use.

House Of Edgar offers these military-style tartans. I had a kilt made in Royal Stewart and the HoE fabric was a dead-ringer for the RS kilts I saw worn by pipers of The Black Watch.

Regimental Tartans - House of Edgar

As for the kilts themselves, if you want to go all-out for the traditional Other Ranks style you would observe these details

1) a 4-inch rise rather than the 2-inch rise usually seen on civilian kilts.

2) herringbone twill grass-green binding around the top.

3) no fringe.

4) the distinctive stamped black sheet-metal two-prong army buckles, on thin black-treated canvas tabs.

I have some of those buckles I will re-gift you if you want to go all-out for authenticity.

As for who to make such a kilt, I think most if not all traditional kiltmakers could do it.

The only thing is finding the binding. When I ordered a military-style RS kilt from HoE they didn't have the binding so they bound the top with green wool fabric which looked great.

Now if you want a Seaforth, Argyll, or Cameron kilt those are box-pleated and not all kiltmakers do those.







Here's a closeup of the box pleats on a Cameron Highlanders kilt.

[Patty Logan]

Now if you want a Seaforth, Argyll, or Cameron kilt those are box-pleated and not all kiltmakers do those

Traditional or military box pleats?

[plaid preacher]

If I were looking for something like that I would probably go to Robert Macdonald of Westcoast Kilts. He's a former Seaforths officer and does a lot of kilts for them.

[Patty Logan]

If I were looking for something like that I would probably go to Robert Macdonald of Westcoast Kilts. He's a former Seaforths officer and does a lot of kilts for them.

I watch his videos religiously and after emailing, he told me that his backlog is to big to accept new customers and that i should see around the end of august/beginning of September if it died down enough.

[Micrographia]

Be aware that the traditional Scottish military Other Ranks kilts were made from a distinctive fabric.

It was heavier than the civilian heavyweight fabric.

It had a curious and unique surface feel and look, being a bit fuzzier and more blanket-like that civilian kilting cloth.

Indeed. I have my fathers 1960's era Gordon's kilt and it is a beast compared to modern civilian kilts.

EEM

[Patty Logan]

Indeed. I have my fathers 1960's era Gordon's kilt and it is a beast compared to modern civilian kilts.

Do you have pictures?

[Micrographia]

Sorry, no - away from home on vacation for a few weeks

EEM

[OC Richard]

I should further clarify what I was talking about when I specified Scottish Highland regimental Other Ranks' kilts and the fabric they were/are made from.

Part of the fuzzy travel-rug look and feel of the big-sett fabric was that the pattern of the tartan is less distinct.

The other thing to be aware of are the various distinctions in the Scottish Highland regimental uniforms between:

Other Ranks
Sergeants
Senior Sergeants and Warrant Officers
Officers

Where the line was drawn, regarding specific items of uniform, varied from item to item and from regiment to regiment.

Other Ranks wore the heavy rug-like fabric, while Officers wore a fabric that looks and feels like civilian 16oz kilting cloth.

Also traditionally Officers privately purchased their uniforms. If they were members of the aristocracy they might have their regular bespoke tailor make their uniforms, meaning that Officers' kilts varied from kilt to kilt, and the various Other Ranks' kilt attributes I talked about won't necessarily be present in Officers' kilts, which oftentimes are indistinguishable from civilian kilts.

In some, if not all, regiments Senior Sergeants' kilts were made from the Officers' kilt fabric.

So here, with the pipers of 3SCOTS (The Black Watch) you can see the piper wearing the heavy fuzzy big-sett ORs fabric while the Pipe Major's fabric appears to be ordinary civilian 16oz fabric. As you can see the latter has a more clearly-defined look and the sett is a smaller size. (In each case the plaid fabric matches the kilt.)



The same distinction can be seen here between the Pipe Major's tartan and the OR's tartan in 4SCOTS (The Highlanders). Note how the fine red and yellow lines aren't as clearly defined in the fuzzy OR's tartan.



An odd exception were the kilts of the pipers of the now-defunct Pipes & Drums of 1SCOTS (Royal Borderers).

Here, the Pipe Major's fabric appears to be the same fabric as the Black Watch Pipe Major above.

But the other pipers' kilts are a curiously small sett-size, apparently the same fabric used for the bag-covers. (Traditionally tartan bag-covers were made from lighter-weight smaller-set fabric than the kilts and plaids.)

I don't know why the pipers of 1SCOTS aren't using the heavy big-sett Royal Stewart fabric worn by the pipers of 3SCOTS, 7SCOTS, and The Scots Guards.



Things get more curious with this photo of two pipers of 1SCOTS, one wearing the bag-cover small-sett kilt and the other wearing the ordinary big-sett Royal Stewart kilt seen with the other units mentioned above. He has the appearance one traditionally would have seen, the kilt and plaid a larger sett-size than the bag-cover.