Tweed Great Kilt

**MHorne39** · 14th July 24, 03:26 AM

Hello!

I have a few kilts now, both tailored and Feileadh Mor, and I’ve been looking at getting another, a Stewart Hunting Weathered Tweed Great Kilt. However, I’m not sure if this will be too warm. I live in Hawaii, so the temperature usually fluctuates between 60°F and about 85°F. I would only get 4 yards of it. My other Great Kilts are all 4 yards as well, but they’re all 13 ounce. My tailored kilts are both 16 ounce 5-yarders, and I don’t have a problem with those during the warmer times. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

**Jock Scot** · 14th July 24, 03:36 AM

Any thoughts?

As a personal point of view, I think the great kilt can only be regarded as a purely theatrical historical garment and cannot be regarded as anything other than that and has no real relevance in the modern world whatsoever.

**Liam** · 14th July 24, 04:22 AM

I tend to agree with Jock on this one. A great kilt is Renfaire attire. Unless you are attending these on a regular basis, one such outfit should be more than enough.

**DCampbell16B** · 14th July 24, 05:12 AM

As one who has worn one, specifically to historically recreate a specific period, I also agree with Jock and Liam. One is enough, and is really only useful for that one purpose. I haven't worn mine for decades, and I keep thinking it is time to have it made into something else. A regular kilt is so much easier to wear, less cumbersome, and more appropriate.

My two cents form an experienced person.

**MHorne39** · 14th July 24, 10:11 AM

I understand what you are saying, however, I really enjoy wearing them in a more ‘modern casual’ (with a t-shirt/grandfather shirt) fashion, and I do tend to wear them fairly often. I work at a farmers market on Saturdays, and I wear one of my 4 GK’s every Saturday, as well as the occasional Costco/grocery run day so they get pretty regular use. I like to embrace the peacock-ery of them, and I find them easier to clean/care for than tailored kilts, seeing as i sometimes will get ‘market grime’ (coffee/cream/dust/food bits, etc.) in them through the course of the day. I do wear them to RenFaire and things like that, but they’re honestly more integrated into my regular weekly wardrobe than my tailored kilts. I’m just asking if the heavyweight tweed would be too warm weather wise than compared to a medium weight of the same dimensions.

**Touchstone** · 15th July 24, 03:51 AM

I wear one in our living history group, about 7 yards of a very lightweight wool. I think the sheer yardage in a heavier weight would be very cumbersome in hot weather. Of course, hot weather in Ohio, USA, means anywhere up to 100 degrees ...

**Pleater** · 15th July 24, 03:12 PM

The great kilt is great for sweeping cups off coffee tables, and anything else which happens to be on it at the time, and it has a tendency to snag on any handy knob or handle - and as for never passing a bicycle without grabbing handle bar, brake lever or even the saddle - 10/10 for that.
I thought it might make a cosy wrap around for winter mornings, but it very soon met with a pair of scissors and became a much better mannered dressing gown with pleats falling from a shoulder yoke.

Anne the Pleater.

**Jock Scot** · 16th July 24, 02:53 AM

Originally Posted by Pleater

The great kilt is great for sweeping cups off coffee tables, and anything else which happens to be on it at the time, and it has a tendency to snag on any handy knob or handle - and as for never passing a bicycle without grabbing handle bar, brake lever or even the saddle - 10/10 for that.
I thought it might make a cosy wrap around for winter mornings, but it very soon met with a pair of scissors and became a much better mannered dressing gown with pleats falling from a shoulder yoke.

Anne the Pleater.

**OC Richard** · 18th July 24, 03:22 AM

I have a kilt in the fabric you're probably talking about, by Marton Mills, 16 ounce tartan tweed, Hunting Stewart Weathered.

It's the nicest kilt I've ever had.

However it does seem thicker and heavier than ordinary 16 ounce worsted kilting cloth, though I suppose technically they're the same.

It would look beautiful in a breacan-an-feileadh though in addition to being heavy and bulky it's also hopelessly anachronistic, as "weathered tartans" were introduced in 1949 and the breacan-an-feileadh became a thing of history around the beginning of the 19th century.

It's films like Rob Roy and television programmes like Outlander which have cemented "weathered" tartans as having existed in early times.

We have to face the fact that for over 200 years the breacan-an-feileadh has been a historical garment. Being a former re-enactor I've spent plenty of time in historical clothing, but such isn't going to pass for current fashion. Wearing a breacan-an-feileadh calls for powdered wig and the rest of the panoply of 18th century fashion.

**PiperPadre** · 18th July 24, 07:02 AM

Originally Posted by MHorne39

Hello!

I have a few kilts now, both tailored and Feileadh Mor, and I’ve been looking at getting another, a Stewart Hunting Weathered Tweed Great Kilt. However, I’m not sure if this will be too warm. I live in Hawaii, so the temperature usually fluctuates between 60°F and about 85°F. I would only get 4 yards of it. My other Great Kilts are all 4 yards as well, but they’re all 13 ounce. My tailored kilts are both 16 ounce 5-yarders, and I don’t have a problem with those during the warmer times. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Although I would never get a great kilt and have always had an antipathy towards them at Highland games, the material you mention is beautiful. I've got a kilt made of that material (Marton Mills, Stewart Hunting Weathered). Since it's tweed, the weave is looser than the more usual worsted wool kilt. Perhaps counterintuitively, a looser weave makes for a warmer garment than the tighter weave of worsted wool.