OK folks, it's taken me a real long time to bring up this little tale which happens to be true.

Last August I visited a Scottish store (which will remain unnamed) to advertise my Scottish Club I was starting at the time. I was wearing my Matt Newsome made Gunn Box Pleat (I friggin' love that kilt). The owner of the store was not there, the assistant was. She (the assistant) who makes kilted skirts and highlander shirts for the store quickly noticed my box pleated kilt. She became very inquisitive because they had had several calls for them and had to tell customers, we don't offer box pleats. She asked questions like (which I had appropriate answers for), how come one strap on the right hip, how come no fringe,? My kilt is a strome 16oz weight, and she thought it had a hem on it because the material was so thick, so she physically inspected the selvedge and proved herself wrong. She stated they never sell 16oz kilts because they are to hot. It became clear to me that her kilt knowledge was based on what they sell. .... then the strangest observation I've ever had.

Your kilt doesn't have any velcro, but needs it! I then began to defend Matt's work. Now to be fare, she was talking about that spot just above the right leather strap. I had had a bit of a car ride to get to the store and that part of the kilt was bent out a little due to the car ride.

She proceeded to say they add velcro to all their kilts they sell so that doesn't happen. Just if you all are interested, I'm pretty sure they sell kilts from Locharron Mills. If it's not Locharron, the maker uses that mill, and the kilt maker is based in Scotland. They did have several kilts on racks from orders that had gone bad, and I recall seeing a Locharron logo tag.

So basically, when the kilt that a customer has ordered arrives at this Scottish store, this lady gets out her sewing machine and adds velcro to it before mailing it to the customer. It very quickly dawned on me that the Scottish kilt maker might not, and probably doesn't know that their American dealer adds velcro to their kilts.

The reason why I say this, is because I'm pretty sure the average Kilt maker wouldn't want a retailer adding something to their product that could bring the quality of the product down a couple of notches. If my memory serves me well, there has been a similar thread on this topic a while back and I think Matt chimed in with his position on the topic, and he said pretty much what I thought he would have said.

Honestly,

Daniel Scott Williamson