Making kilts for others

**Piglet** · 12th November 10, 08:40 AM

I wondered what some other kilt makers thought about making kilts for other businesses? Do you prefer to only make for your own label, or are you quite happy to make for another? I'm discussing making kilts for a designer, but feel a little funny about not having any way of customers knowing that they are my kilts on the peg? But maybe I'm being silly and should just take work when it comes. Any thoughts?

**tulloch** · 12th November 10, 09:21 AM

A fine garment is like a book. Many can write a travelogue about going on a Disney cruise or rafting down the Danube but everyone will have a different style. Each will get a reputation based on their work. You will find yourself wanting to read the ones by Mr. C. Dickens even if they are about some place you never thought you wanted to see because you really like his descriptions. On the other hand you may see pieces written by this guy Tulloch and you will avoid them unless they are right on point something you have a great interest in.

If your work is going out through some reputable vendor it should, in my opinion, have some indication in the labeling. If you go to their shop and work by their guidelines then their lable only. If you provide your independently created works then for you and for them it should show somehow in the affixed label.

Good luck! May you be prosperous and sell great gobs of great work.

**artificer** · 12th November 10, 09:24 AM

PM sent.

**Mike_Oettle** · 12th November 10, 10:06 AM

Not being a kilt maker, Libby, I have no background in this, but I would think that a label indicating you as the maker would be entirely proper.
Possibly the supplier should be consulted about it, but it seems to me it would be polite of him/her to allow it.
Regards,
Mike

**Piglet** · 12th November 10, 12:21 PM

Good point from you both thanks - I guess I'd have a few more questions to ask before deciding if I want to agree to it, but I think you are right, that I want to build my own reputation, not somebody else's with no link to my label.

**piperdbh** · 12th November 10, 12:58 PM

If you make a kilt with a label that says something along the lines of
"This kilt made by Piglet for the Tigger Scottish Shop"
(or whatever the real names are), then if there's a problem, the shop will know whom to blame. If your name is nowhere in the label, then the shop will have to bear all the criticism of your work and wonder who made the kilt in question.

**Chas** · 12th November 10, 01:37 PM

Originally Posted by piperdbh

If you make a kilt with a label that says something along the lines of
"This kilt made by Piglet for the Tigger Scottish Shop"
(or whatever the real names are), then if there's a problem, the shop will know whom to blame. If your name is nowhere in the label, then the shop will have to bear all the criticism of your work and wonder who made the kilt in question.

As far as I know, the larger the kilt making shop, the less likely you are to find out who actually is making any one individual kilt. Most of the makers are not on site and work from home and for all anyone can tell, the maker could be anywhere in the world. And if someone were to ask, who the kiltmaker is going to be, the most one would be told is that is Mrs MacSomebody or Mr MacOtherperson. It would be totally irresponsible of the kilt shop and possibly illegal to tell the customer where the maker lived.

The moral of the story being that if you want to get a kilt made by a known maker, you have to go to a known maker.

Piglet - if you want to be known under your own name then you will have to keep making kilts independently, (if your contract with the shop allows it) because the shop will not advertise for you.

Regards

Chas

**Piglet** · 13th November 10, 02:07 AM

Thanks Chas - i don't fancy making kilts for any of the big kilt shops, but this was a small run of kilts for a designer shop in England and so not really crossing into my normal territory (eg the material would be their own rather than tartan). I thought it might be useful practice in making kilts out of different fabrics ( just to see what I thought really) but there would definitely be no problem with a contract stopping me from making kilts in my own name as it woukd only be a small run for one season.

But at the same time, maybe I'll just try some in other fabrics off my own back. I've done pink kilts for a breast cancer charity event before but actually was a lot more work in some ways cause of the thickness of the material.

**Barb T** · 13th November 10, 09:53 AM

If it's a designer shop in England, you might be able to get them to put a printed hang tag on the kilt that says something about you. You would have to print up the hang tag yourself (and it would have to be classy), but here in the US, anyway, you could get something like that printed very cheaply. And the shop might be more inclined to actually put it on the kilt if the hang tag had care instructions on the back. And it would help them justify charging more for your kilt if it is obviously hand made by someone who's pic and info are right on the hang tag. And it wouldn't hurt to include one with all of your kilts. Hmmmm - gets me thinking!

Anyway, a place like OvernightPrints in the US will print 100 two-sided glossy 2"x6" heavy stock bookmarks (which would work well for this) from your own artwork for $30 (500 for $50). They do super work, and I presume that there must be similar companies in the UK.

The big down side to making kilts for sale by someone else is that a kiltmaker is typically paid a whole lot less than when taking a custom order directly (although this might not be the case for your designer shop, which would be great). And if you want to build up your business, you don't want to wind up with so much of your time jobbing kilts for others that you don't have time to market yourself as a kiltmaker.

I gave advice to a kiltmaker here in the US a year or so ago - she was making kilts for another kiltmaker, was being paid only $110 for all the labor, and could not talk the other kiltmaker into a raise. I don't know what pay is like for kiltmakers in the UK, but, unless you take significant shortcuts, $110 for all the labor in a properly made kilt is below minimum wage in the US, which, in New York State, is currently $7.25/hour.

**Pleater** · 14th November 10, 09:44 AM

It would be a good idea to sew in a tape somewhere discretely hidden or even embroider directly onto the fabric, to have a permanent serial number or some sort of code for your own records.

That way if you get a rocket over the size or length you can look it up.

It is easy to make a photographic record these days too.

Shops can be cheeky and I have known one manager to complain that the garments they had left at the end of the season were returned because they were the wrong size, just because they ordered too many in a small size.

Anne the Pleater :ootd: