What kilt to buy? Purists will say that no less than a 16 oz. 8-yard wool kilt, sewn by hand by a skilled kiltmaker in Scotland or equivalent places shall do. But are they right?

Start looking at your wardrobe. What should a kilt replace or substitute? It is about you and your money and your possibilities for wearing a kilt.

Your kilt should fit its purpose

The kilt is a most versatile garment, which you to a great extent can dress up and down by means of accessories. However, the real all-purpose kilt does not exist. This means that having only one kilt must be a compromise and exclude some functions. Now, what is worse; either having to refrain from wearing a kilt at a wedding or when being on holiday in Rome? The wedding is for some hours, Rome perhaps for a week.

Kilt wearing is for non-formal events

Formal events (black tie and white tie) are not frequent. For many men they are too seldom occurring events for investing in an expensive garment, thus in many cases resulting in hiring rather than buying. This also implies to kilts, of course.
And if you, like me and many, many other kilt wearers around the world, have no Scottish roots, it is rather unlikely that you should ever be invited to an event, where formal kilt wear is an option or mandatory.
Also, a kilt on job instead of a business suit? Maybe for casual fridays, but could you? Would you?

High potential for wearing a kilt are weekends and holidays, and days where you are working from your home and in the evenings.

What you need for these purposes is a kilt to replace jeans, chinos, and shorts, rather than a kilt outfits to replace evening suits and tuxes etc. In other words, a kilt for casual and smart casual wear. That said, a kilt for smart casual wear is, with the right accessories also perfect for the opera house, the concert hall, theater, and Michelin restaurants, should so you wish.

A kilt must not be very expensive

Don’t automatically think that only the most expensive kilt shall do. Are your jeans and chinos all labelled Armani, Hugo Boss and the like, it might be true – if the kilt should substitute them, and not your shorts which might be cheaper non-branded ones. For must purposes, less (and cheaper) will do.

Don't believe that an expensive kilt is more 'manly' than a cheaper one, or that a cheap kilt is not considered a kilt.

For people seeing you in a kilt, their first thought is not, whether your kilt is cheap or expensive. It is the fact that you are wearing a kilt. Probably this is their only thought.
Most people, outside Scottish environments, have only seen a kilt in pictures or on TV. How should they know about details, differences in fabric etc? They will connect a kilt with tartans and perhaps pleats. Point.

Dress to impress?

No doubt, you know the expression, dress to impress. If that is what you have in mind, better than invest in that extremely expensive kilt think other possibilities. Only very few connoisseurs, whom you after all shall never meet, shall be able to give you credit for this Rolls Royce of a kilt.
Shirts with a logo, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger et al, are signalizing something to most people. So do watches like Rolex, Philippe Patek, TAG Heuer, and Omega. Wearing them makes your thrifty kilt look like a million. The world asks to be fooled.
By the way, the newest iPhone makes it only 14 days, then everybody has one.

How should your kilt be made?

A skilled, experienced kiltmaker, doing every single stich by hand, can make a kilt a piece of art. It takes hours and hours and hours. No wonder that such kilt has its price.
That said, a skilled, experienced kiltmaker, primarily using the machine can make very, very nice kilts, too.
Even a woman with her skills only coming from making kilts day in, day out, perhaps in a factory in Sialkot, Pakistan, might be able to produce kilts like if by magic, especially if she was given just a little bit more time than when making the cheapest of kilts. It is called learning by doing.
I have been wearing kilts for almost 30 years by now. Except for arranged get-togethers with other kilt enthusiasts, I think, I might have seen men in kilts less than 20 times and only from a distance, making it not clear, whether the kilt was expensive or less so. Besides, I couldn’t care less. The important thing for me was and is seeing another man in a kilt.

Are 8 yards preferable over 5 yards or less? And 16 oz. over 13 oz. or less

If you want the ‘tank’. Yes. The kilt with the correct swing, as they say. But less will do and might often be better – depending on the context in which you shall wear it. To my opinion, eight yards of fabric around me, even if lightweight, is quite a bit. I'll say 5 yards for me; 4 or 3 yards being ok too.
A 16 oz. kilt is fine on a cold day, or at a dress-up event. Formal clothes have never been comfortable, but that is the way it is.
When temperature exceeds 5C/41F a 13 oz. kilt feels much more comfortable – to me. At 25C/77F I think an 11 oz. one is better, or even an 8 oz.

Wool or PV?

Wool, no doubt, is the best-looking fabric. A minus is that a wool kilt cannot be washed, it must be dry-cleaned. It is warmer in the winter – and in the summer - than PV.
PV is available in different qualities. Some cheap fabrics peel, others, especially those coming from British mills, like Marton Mills, are fine and make excellent kilts for casual and smart casual wear, and even heavy rain is no problem. They shall get wet but are drying fast without needing much aftercare, if any.

Ready-made or made-to-your-measures?

Until about five years ago, cheaper kilts would be off-the-peg. They would come in four-five different waist-sizes, in 7-8 different tartans, and in a standardized 24" or 61 cm length. They were typically made in Pakistan or China and sold by kilt shops in North America and Europe, especially Scotland.

Today, even cheap kilts are offered made-to-measure. You order your kilt by vendors with addresses in for example USA, UK, France, and Germany, whereafter the kilt is sewn in the city of Sialkot in Pakistan, from where it is shipped to you. The system functions, and your kilt is hardly more expensive than a ready-made one. Ready-made kilts are still to buy.

Kilts, sewn in Europe or America are, with a few exceptions, always made to your measures.

The price is not just the price

Unless you live in Scotland, it is likely that your kilt is ordered online, and that you and your vendor live in different countries. Borders often mean additional cost, and kilts are no exception. Check the conditions your country.

For EU-citizens, import duty, customs declaration fee, and customs duty apply when buying from a country outside the Union.
Want to see the rules, klick here. Otherwise just go on.

Your first kilt and where to buy it?

Below you'll find advice on buying kilts for casual and smart casual wear. There shall be two categories,

1. Affordable kilts, sewn in Pakistan
2. Casual and traditional kilts, sewn in Scotland, USA, Ireland, and Austria

1. Affordable Kilt sewn in Pakistan

The existence of affordable kilts is to my opinion the necessary condition of having more men in general start wearing a kilt.

Now, what is affordable, what is expensive, and what it too expensive? It is most individual, of course, but I should say that to many men, an affordable kilt is around 100 dollars, pounds or euros, delivered at their doorstep. This implies that the kilt itself shall cost no more than $/£/€60-70 to accommodate for shipment, tax, and declaration. Unfortunately, no Scottish made kilts are to have within this price category, not even ready-made ones. A Scottish kilt shall cost 2-3 times as much and very often, considerably more. But, fortunately, in Pakistan, especially in the Northeastern city Sialkot, very many enterprises are making and selling affordable kilts.

But how about quality? Even the cheapest kilt can be too expensive if the quality is inferior. I have bought two such kilts - from a British and an American vendor. They had in common that the fabric peeled and soon made the kilts look miserable. The cheaper one, a £30 kilt from UK, litterally fell apart after a few wearings. Cheap, made to be cheap, can be too cheap to also be good. Therefore, better avoid the cheapest of kilts.

I have two makers/sellers of Pakistani made-to-measure kilts to recommend:




On Links Page #1 you might find several other enterprises offering affordable made-to-measure kilts. With them I have no experience, however.

Vendors of ready-made kilts

You can still buy ready-made kilts. Most likely they are made in Pakistan or China. They are a little cheaper than Pakistani made-to-your-measures kilts and they can be delivered faster. But, like said already, their 24" length must fit you.

2. 'Casual' and 'traditional' kilts

A step up the ladder, you can from Scotland and USA have high quality 'casual' kilts made of PV from British mills. Especially here they are superior to Pakistani competition.
In this category you also find casual kilts made of wool as well as machine sewn 'traditional style' wool kilts. These are typically 13 oz. 5-yard kilts, but often you can have these kilts in any tartan weight and yardage you wish.

If you are prepared to pay 2-3 times more than for an affordable kilt made in Pakistan, a casual kilt made in Scotland or in the US is what to go for.

What is the difference between 'casual' and 'traditional'?

Very little. Some Scottish and American kiltmakers or vendors will position their cheapest kilts as being casual, probably in the hope that they shall not cannibalize their more expensive ones, which they'll call 'traditonal, too much. But of course, there are also real differences. Casual kilts are machine-sewn whereas their more expensive 'traditional' siblings might be sewn by hand for even better precision. And then casual kilts are sometimes made of PV instead of wool, and/or there are savings on the yardage and the tartan weight. i.e., from two to six yards and 10-11 oz, some 13 oz, rather than eight yards and 16 oz. One of the kilts, I'm going to recommend is really lightweight, only 8 oz.
It is to note, that the PV used for these kilts typically is in a very high quality from British mills.

On some expensive kilts, there is an additional rise. This you'll not find on any casual kilt. The extra rise may be fine if you are wearing a waistcoat and a Prince Charlie jacket, but that you are not for casual wear. And even for the concert hall, the opera house, the theatre, and the Michelin restaurant 'casual' kilts, at least the ones in wool, worn with a kilt jacket, are all you need.

I shouldn't forget to mention that the fact that most 'casual' kilts are 11 oz or 13 oz, means that they might feel and look more comfortable on hot summer days in Southern Europe than 16 oz. kilts. All Pakistani kilts come in a 16 oz equivalent fabric, probably to having them feel closer to expensive Scottish, 'traditional' kilts.

Most of my own kilts are 5-yard, 13 oz wool kilts and made in Scotland. Unfortunately, the vendors, from whom, I over the years, have got them, are no longer existing or are no longer offering custom-made kilts. Therefore, I only have experience with very few of the vendors below.

Made in Scotland

Made in Scotland - vendor in Germany

Made in England

Made in Ireland

Made in USA

High shipment costs and custom duties make American vendors non-competitive for European kilt buyers, with a few exceptions.

Kilts a la Austria

If you are not Scottish and your kilt consequently doesn’t need being Scottish in its expression, you might find this kiltmaker interesting:

Conclusion

My suggestion for a first kilt should be either a casual kilt or a 5-yard kilt made in Pakistan. You can easily find kilts costing twice or three times more than the kilts I have suggested here. For casual wear or an evening in the opera house, I just think, you don't need them. But your needs, your money, your choice.
On the Links #1 page you can find makers of those fine kilts.

Be aware, that by buying a kilt, kind of addiction might have started, so probably you'll not end up with having just one kilt.