custom made Prince Charlie for US $ 165

[kilted Kiwi2]

Hi Everyone

I've been looking around for a Prince Charlie jacket now for a while and I've missed out on a few on E- bay and I'm thinking of just getting an Eton black jacket and fitting it out with Scottish buttons . But I found this company from Pakistan " The Greenland Pipe Co " that sells highland supplies and they had some jackets advertised on their website as they tailor make black wool Prince Charlie, Argyle Jackets & doublets so I asked them how much a Black wool Prince Charlie would cost to get made and sent to Japan. I quickly received an answer to my question and this is what they said. To custom tailor a jacket it would cost

Jacket US $ 105
postage US $ 50
Insurance US $ 10
total US $165.00

I was quite surprised as this is the best deal I've found so far and by the looks of their website http://www.greenlandpipeco.com/ sells a lot of their stuff to stores outside of Pakistan as well. . Has anybody had any dealings with this company or know what their jackets are like ?

Kilted Kiwi

Clann Gunn & Lamont

[Kilted KT]

Considering they do not accept any form of electronic payment, and are asking for cash equivalents, I would be very very sceptical until you find someone who has dealt with them already.

again, I would not order anything until you find someone who can vouch for the business.

you did come to the right place to ask about them, any bad experiences will definitly show up here.

slainte mhor!
KT

[O'Neille]

Has anybody had any dealings with this company or know what their jackets are like ?

No I've never been brave enough to order from Pakistan. Those jackets "look" much better than many I have seen from other manufactures in Pakistan. luckily I'm a stock size and don't need custom made in any way, so an off the peg from Scotland has always been my best bet. I never wanted to take the chance and spend almost 200 for what I might not like when I could spend an extra 100 on a sure bet. O'Neille

[Robin]

Be careful...for a few $$$ more you can buy guaranteed good quality.

[Sciuropterus]

Having some experience with Pakistani vendors, I have the following advice:

Never, never, ever (ever) trust a photo on their website to be an accurate representation of the finished product.

If the photo looks good, it was most likely stolen from the actual manufacturers website. At least one broker (most of them are not manufacturers, even though they all say they are) in Pakistan has SWK, L&M and Lochcarron photos and plagarised text on their website. I confronted them and they denied stealing SWK photos (even though I have the hi-res originals) and claimed that they manufactured L&M's sporrans (yeah, right) so it was OK to use their pictures.

Be especially careful with jackets, chances are not good that they will fit in a flattering manner, even if the sewing is good. I have inspected many jackets from Pakistan, they usually ended up right in the dumpster. In some ways, a bad-fitting jacket is worse than a bad-fitting kilt.

Pakistani manufacturers are having a tough time satisfying knowledgable kilt-wearers, the way they have been doing things for too long is no longer cutting it. Many of them mean well and are genuinely friendly people, but there is a HUGE cultural gap, and often they just don't comprehend modern quality standards, and they are often using manufacturing equipment and methods that would qualify as historical re-enactment.



Now, to really scare you:

Here are some amateur Pakistani pipe bands. Notice the backwards kilts and soccer sox. Also notice in the lower photos, the sporrans were a photoshopped afterthought.

[RockyR]

Since the one guy in the first photo (2nd figure from the left) is walking backwards, does that mean he's wearing his kilt correctly?!?!

[Sciuropterus]

It's at least pointing the right way. I like the dingleball fringe on the bottom picture. Just like grandma's lampshade.

I do have to give those guys credit for their enthusiasm, anyway.

[ronstew]

How's their piping?

[O'Neille]

Now there's some photos that are in contention for the kilt don'ts page. O'Neille