Tweed kilts? What do you think?

[gwynng]

I've been mulling over making myself a tweed kilt. I like the look, but not sure about fabric. There are lots of options, none of which are inexpensive, even if I am making it myself. Of course I'd love to do one in a Harris tweed, and I wondered about Xmarkers' experience with it in a kilt. Do the pleats hold well? Is it too heavy for a temperate place like San Diego? I have made a box pleat kilt out of a medium weight (13 oz.) tartan that is not worsted, and I do have to touch it up with an iron more often than my worsted tartans. Does Harris tweed hold a crease well?

Any experience out there is wearing or making tweed kilts? I venture to guess that a solid color kilt is a little less fussy when sewing the pleats at least.

[thecompaqguy]

I've been hankering after a tweed kilt for some time... I saw one here
http://www.sourceculture.co.uk/produ...ntlemen-kilts/
but the price made me take a long sit down... once I got my breath back, I found a cheaper, but better known example in 21st Century Kilts,
http://21stcenturykilts.com/product/5/harris-tweed-kilt
and a more sensible price. I would pay £650 for one of Howie's creations compared to this unknown manufacturer's eyewatering £945 to £1065 The rest of the items on SourceCulture's page seem to me to be posh junk (bric-a-brac, as we say here in the UK )

I've toyed with the idea of tweed but I need to save up first...

[Father Bill]

If price is the issue, I'm betting that any of our wonderful sponsors, advertisers, or partners could do it for less than either of those prices. They seem excessive to me.

[gwynng]

Sheesh! Posh junk all right! Only £29,000 for a PEN?!? I'll take three in case I leave one at the DMV.

Well, I was planning on skirting the price issue do a degree because I plan on making the kilt myself. Even then, it is a daunting prospect with most Harris tweeds running in the range of £55-75 and up per meter. So, yes, I can beat the prices of either of these makers even if I go with the most expensive tweed. Still wondering how the pleats hold up to wearing with the looser, heavier weave of tweeds?

[Father Bill]

Interesting question. I'm told that the correct term for the weave used for kilt fabric is normally a "twill."

[ratspike]

I love tweed, and I think tweed kilts are fabulous. I have one that I made with some brown-ish/ochre-ish stuff that I picked up on ebay for practically nothing. It was lovely to work with and holds a pleat well. It has a windowpane pattern so it was fussier to sew than a solid color, but didn't make me want to pull my hair out like tartan does.

[dmackorth]

I've been hankering after a tweed kilt for some time... I saw one here
http://www.sourceculture.co.uk/produ...ntlemen-kilts/
but the price made me take a long sit down... once I got my breath back, I found a cheaper, but better known example in 21st Century Kilts,
http://21stcenturykilts.com/product/5/harris-tweed-kilt
and a more sensible price. I would pay £650 for one of Howie's creations compared to this unknown manufacturer's eyewatering £945 to £1065 The rest of the items on SourceCulture's page seem to me to be posh junk (bric-a-brac, as we say here in the UK )

I've toyed with the idea of tweed but I need to save up first...

Hi Gents,
My name is Duncan MacDonald-Korth and I am the owner of SourceCulture, the webshop mentioned in the quoted thread above. We have been getting a lot of click throughs from Xmarks so I wanted to come and read the post. As I saw, some took exception to our pricing for kilts, so I wanted to address that here.

Firstly, I want to apologise that the prices were so high. Upon reading this forum I talked to our craftsmen responsible for the kilts, and we had in fact had a miscommunication regarding their pricing. If you return to our site (http://www.sourceculture.co.uk/produ...ntlemen-kilts/) you will see that we have dropped the prices £200-300 on both the men's and women's kilts, with Gents kilts now at £785 instead of £1065. These kilts are made by an expert kilt maker in the Outer Hebrides who has been making kilts for twenty years and sources all of her tweed locally.

Secondly, I just want to respond to the comment that we sell "posh junk". I will give you a personal assurance that the opposite is in fact true. My wife and I, in fact, started SourceCulture only to sell the highest quality goods, as we were frustrated with the overpriced junk sold all over the high street and the so-called "luxury" industry. We personally know every craftsmen on our site, and have quality tested all the items. Every product we sell is made locally (in the origin country of the craftsmen), and every single piece is made to the highest quality standards established by the traditions of its respective industry. The result of this is that every piece we sell is both extremely durable and beautiful. Also, our highest cost items (like the pen mentioned), is very expensive because of the high materials cost (gold, diamonds etc.). The margin achieved on such an item is not any higher than on regular items, in other words, you are not paying for nothing.

As a last thought on this matter I just wanted to let everyone know that the reason we ended up starting the SourceCulture in the first place is that my wife and I had purchased goods from some of the craftsmen on our site, and they had treated us so well over the years, that we thought there must be a market to sell more of these great products than the craftsmen were then achieving.

I personally stand by every product we sell. Please feel free to contact me through this site or SourceCulture if you have any questions.

Best wishes to everybody and we hope you will give us a second look.

Duncan MacDonald-Korth

[Calgacus]

I'm not a huge fan of non-tartan tweed kilts, but here's another source of tartan and non-tartan tweed kilts.

http://katesoriginals.co.uk/index.html

[jhockin]

I would like to suggest that at least one photo of the pleats, might help( at least for xmarkers, such as the OP) sales.
Also: for those of us, on this forum, the "weight" of a kilt refers to the weight ( ie: grams per meter/ oz. per yd. [ex.: 13 oz/yd, or 24 oz/yd] )of the cloth, rather than the amount of yardage making up the kilt ( which can vary depending upon pleating option/style [ex.: box pleats, knife pleats, etc.], and girth of the person buying the kilt). FYI ;0)

[jhockin]

I was just checking my favorite Harris Twed website, and see they have a number of "clearance" tweeds, marked down 29%, to 25GBP, for double width:

http://harristweedandknitwear.co.uk/...=0&sort=normal