Many thanks for all your welcomes and replies; I am glad to see that we are not alone in our thought about how a kilt should be made.

For the record, Riverkilt, we are in Scotland.

My wife has done a lot of contract kilts for many of the main companies on the West coast here; we have done a few for you Rocky, and part of the problem and solution are those bigger companies.

There was an article recently in the Scottish Sunday Herald about the decline in the number of traditional kiltmakers left in Scotland. The article said that there are only 10 left in the whole of Scotland, my wife would like to know who the other 9 are! They claim that this problem was caused by the number of exports and machine made kilts.

The problem as I see it is profit, and I do not have a problem with that. The main companies’ contract a lot of their work to outworkers, many of whom work at home, do not declare or pay tax on their income and accept the low prices paid from those companies, at a rate per kilt which is below the national minimum wage. Where is the incentive for a kilt maker to continue working for this rate? If the companies paid a realistic rate for a kilt we would have more kilt makers willing to stick at the job. My wife by the way fully declares all income, pays too much tax and is trying to promote kilt making by taking on and training people in the ancient art.

As I said in the original post many companies now sell machine kilts because they only have to pay half of what it would cost for a handstitched kilt but do they pass that on to the customer? There is a market for machine kilts but at least be honest about it, don’t call it “hand finished” or “bespoke” and charge top dollar for it.