Gentlemen,

I could use your wise advice. I’m looking at purchasing a quality kilt in the next six months and I am not sure how to go about picking out a tartan. I’m willing to wear any tartan, not just the universal ones, and there are so many that it’s befuddling. I have two main concerns:

1. I’ve been to the Lochcarron website and looked through their tartan pictures, but my concern is that the very small swatches they have on their website will yield a kilt that looks completely different. I’ve compared a couple of them to pictures of kilts made from them, and at times, they do look completely different.

2. I’m concerned that I’ll pick out a lovely tartan that catches my eye, and when I put it on, it’ll look terrible on me. When I bought the kilt I have now, I was at a Renaissance Festival and they had a few different tartans in different sizes that I could try on. I first went for a stunning blue and white tartan, but when I tried it on, it looked really bad. Even the shopkeep agreed! I ended up getting a kilt in the Government tartan, instead.

Any suggestions on tartan-picking strategies? Am I overthinking all of this?

Many thanks,
Christopher