Which jacketing material is lighter?

[kilted2000]

I’m planning on having a kilt jacket made soon, and I’m choosing the fabric now. I’m considering either a navy barathea, some sort of tweed probably a lovat blue, or an arrocher in grey. The tweed is 15oz and the arrocher is 16oz. The arrocher is the same as the grey braemer sold by USA Kilts. I live in a climate that gets up to 100+ degrees Fahrenheit or 37 degrees Celsius. I know a shirt with a kilt is acceptable, but sometimes you just want to wear a jacket. I've never owned a kilt jacket before so I am not familiar with the different fabric options. I know none of the given options are as warm weather friendly as cotton or linen, but these are the options available. What fabric would be best for all but the hottest days? I'm planning on buying from St. Kildas if that is relevant. I will probably have a true lightweight jacket converted to kilt length at some point.

https://stkildastore.com/Jackets/Mad...and-Waistcoats

[ShaunMaxwell]

I live in the Houston, Texas area where it's good and hot nine months of the year.

Consequently, there aren't all that many (outdoor) occasions to wear a jacket with a kilt. That said, when I wear one (unless it's a dressier event requiring a Barathea jacket) I wear tweed jackets and have not found them to be noticeably warmer than wearing a sport coat.

Nor do I notice that 13 oz. wool kilts are cooler to wear than 16 oz. kilts.

Maybe I'm just inured to the heat/humidity...

If you're looking for a versatile daywear jacket, I'd go with tweed.



Cheers,

SM

[kingandrew]

I do not know which of your options would be coolest.

I live in South China, just above the tropics, so the weather here is pretty hot and steamy most of the year (4 seasons: summer, December, January, February). It's pretty much like my hometown of Orlando.

One of the upsides of China is that custom tailoring is relatively affordable. So I have a couple of kilt jackets made with the local climate in mind. One is a tweed number made for me by Yuen Tailors in Hong Kong, who actually specialize in Highland wear. Although it is a beautiful dark green tween with blue and orange overcheck, it is a relatively lightweight material--much lighter than my old tweed sport coats from the USA, or my Harris Tweed casual jacket. So, in warm but not brutal weather, I can wear that jacket, often without the waistcoat when things are humid but still "late spring" temperatures.

I also have a kelly green kilt jacket my Beijing tailor made for me, using a cotton shirt fabric. Although it gets a little wrinkled by late afternoon, it works for those hot weather occasions when I need to be dressed up (awards ceremonies at our school, for instance). It is barely heavier than a second shirt, and very breathable.

So you should probably try one of your options and see how it feels. It may be great, or it may be only useful for the winter months. But then you can use it as a pattern when you do have a proper linen or cotton jacket converted for kilt use.

Good luck!
Andrew

[OC Richard]

I’m planning on having a kilt jacket made soon...

I’m considering either a Barathea, some sort of tweed, or an Arrochar. The tweed is 15oz and the Arrochar is 16oz.

I've never owned a kilt jacket before so I am not familiar with the different fabric options.

I've owned many kilt jackets over the years; currently I have an Argyll and a Prince Charlie both in black Barathea, and four tweed kilt jackets.

The Barathea is much lighter in weight and more wearable in warm weather.

True that tweeds can be had in a variety of weights! But my kilt jackets (mostly vintage ones I picked up on Ebay) are heavy, I would say 16 ounce or more.

My black Barathea Argyll feels quite light, I'm guessing 11 ounce, perhaps even 9 ounce. I can wear that jacket in warm weather. As a piper I'm expected to make a good show when piping at a funeral or wedding, so a jacket is a must. Thus that Argyll is my go-to jacket except when we have cooler-than-normal weather.

I've only heard of Arrochar fabric in recent years, usually with charcoal grey kilt jackets. Arrochar is a town, the fabric is described as "a robust tweed".

In any case I would love to have a non-black Barathea kilt jacket. I'd love to see your Navy Barathea jacket if that's what you decide on.

I've only seen Barathea kilt jackets in a few colours: Black, Navy blue, Archer Green, very dark brown, St Andrews Blue, claret, in other words more formal or Evening Dress colours as opposed to Lovat Blue, Lovat Green, Moss Green, brown, checks, and other typical tweed colours seen in Day Dress tweed jackets.

The Barathea jackets usually come with square silver buttons, and sometimes Soutache braid button-loops, while the tweed jackets usually come with stag-horn buttons.

[kilted2000]

I emailed St. Kilda and asked them about the weight of the different fabrics. Straight to the highland coos mouth as it were. This is what they said.

We have navy in 15oz and 19oz: of the various options the 15oz black or navy are the lightest - the rest of the baratheas are 19oz, and we usually default to those with the navy. By contrast the 19oz baratheas tend to be the heavier option feeling wise in my opinion. I'd say tweed and tweed Arrochars are about the same - probably just shy of the 19oz in terms of feeling.

We can look to make a jacket even lighter with a more breathable lining as well if that's of any interest. And just to fuzzy the picture even more, I dare say we could look out another sort of jacketing material if the barathea is still a bit much.

Hope this helps!

Given the above information, what would the Rabble advise? I'm not really looking to spend much more on this jacket than the current price. Maybe I should explore the lighter lining options. I am planning on having a matching waistcoat/vest made as well, so it will be an option to just wear that without the jacket in warmer weather when I still wanted to be a bit 'dressy.'