Thoughts on Kilts
Seeing as we live in Scotland and we're planning what, for 95% of our guests, will be a destination wedding, it makes sense for Chris to wear a kilt. When we first got together he spent a lot of time telling me how he wasn't comfortable with the idea of wearing a kilt but that, for me, he would consider it. After the first or second time I got this response, I dropped the subject but Chris kept bringing it up and I eventually twigged that he wanted me to talk him into one. So here we are, getting married in the Highlands of Scotland and it seems to me that if ever there were a time and place to wear a kilt it's here and now.*
As you might imagine, there are any number of kilt shops in Inverness - all offering bespoke or hire kilts, and some even having a selection of off-the-rack ones available for purchase as well. Mostly by chance we first wound up in a Cute Little Kilt Shop, one that had a lovely window display for Halloween which I loved. Halloween isn't a big holiday up here so it made me extra happy. It turns out their (in-house) seamstress is American (married to a Brit) and she was no doubt responsible. They're having a sale till the end of January with bespoke kilts running around £200-300 (depending on weight) and the full outfit (from lack-of-hat to shoes including a garment bag to store it all) being somewhat less than £700, again depending on weight of the wool. Their hire kilts are £50 (not including jacket and waistcoat) for 5 days. The down side is that they only do hire kilts in 9 tartans.
Now, when you buy a kilt you can have it made in any one of the hundreds of tartans they can order. There are books upon books hanging from their worktops (counters) organized by weight or who-knows-what. What they are not organized by is colour. I had this vision of a mainly blue tartan with yellow detail, rather like the pjs I'm wearing now though these have white not yellow. This tartan does not appear to be commercially available. See, if someone owns the rights to a particular tartan, no one else can weave it. Tartans are serious business. We took a brochure and said we'd come back when we had time to thumb through hundreds if not thousands of tartans.
The next kilt shop we ducked into was on the High Street** and very much the opposite of the little shop with the seamstress sat in the back of the room. They had lots of off-the-racks for tourists and cheap packages for having a kilt or outfit made up. For £60 (including purchase of a shirt and socks) you get the full outfit (and safety knife) for 2 nights, but they take your measurements and order the hire kilt from another company, with a range of 16 tartans. We took a hire brochure and a bespoke brochure and went to a coffee shop to look them over.
Chris had talked himself into, then out of, buying a bespoke kilt by this point (our story takes place over several days) so we concentrated on the hire pamphlet and Chris was quite taken by a dark plum combination - plum jacket, waistcoat, and cravat over a purple and dark grey tartan. Plum instead of sapphire for the wedding? twist my arm. Except, reading the little description, it said the jacket was blue. Glance back at the picture: no, that's very very purple. Dark purple. Purple cravat, purple coat, purple kilt. If the jacket isn't purple, what colour is the rest of it?
I need a fabric sample of whatever tartan Chris decides on to send my bridesmaids and another for my dressmaker to match colours, so we decided to go back to the Chain Kiltshop and buy a scarf or a postcard - anything they had in the same pattern. We could see the true colours and I'd have my fabric samples. Problem solved, right?
No.
Excuse me? No. There is nothing they carry in that tartan. They didn't even have a hire kilt in shop that we could see (though she did think there would be a sun-bleached on in a window display that we could look at - except when we walked past it was covered by a huge SALE! sign and four people leaning against it, waiting for the bus). Remember how I said people own specific tartans? Well this company owns the rights to most of the tartans they hire and all they do is kilt hire. And what did the Chain Kiltshop have to say about not having a fabric sample we could look at? Well, the kilts come in a week before the event so you can make sure everything looks and fits right. A week? What precisely does one do a week before one's wedding when it turns out the purple kilts aren't purple?
Another kilt shop we found also hires from this company (at £90 - including purchase of a shirt and socks - because it's a speciality tartan) and they did have a book with the 16 tartans in it and it's actually mostly blue with purple and green. I checked the hire company's website and they don't interface with the public at all. There's an applet to pick your outfit and a retailer-finder. I can't be the only bride who wants fabric samples - samples! a square about 6" by 6" or however big it needs to be to repeat the pattern! - to coordinate colours. I would even be willing to return it with the kilt when we were done! Craziness.
Remember the brochure from the Cute Little Kilt Shop? I said. Didn't they have a purple one you liked? Remember? That one. They have their kilts in-shop. We can ask if they do fabric samples. Not only do they, but she handed me one right there and then. Two, actually (the purple one Chris likes and a complimentary grey and purple one that we may put his groomsmen in for contrast). Chris tried a couple of different kilts on and every style jacket and much admired his reflection in the mirror and spent the rest of the day talking about how surprisingly comfortable it was and how much he enjoyed wearing a kilt and why would anyone ever wear a suit? When we left he was talking about having a kilt made and hiring two jackets - one style for the wedding and a less formal one for the party.
Yes, Dear. Whatever it takes to get you in a kiltyou want.
Oh! And the owner of the Cute Little Kilt Shop holds the rights to this tartan so if I want to order a couple of extra yards that's not a problem and they may be able to have it woven in silk if I want to trim my dress to match.
* well, six months or so.
** both a literal and figurative description in the UK - (almost?) every town has a High Street which is a main retail district full of the same big chain shops you find in any other town in the UK.
As you might imagine, there are any number of kilt shops in Inverness - all offering bespoke or hire kilts, and some even having a selection of off-the-rack ones available for purchase as well. Mostly by chance we first wound up in a Cute Little Kilt Shop, one that had a lovely window display for Halloween which I loved. Halloween isn't a big holiday up here so it made me extra happy. It turns out their (in-house) seamstress is American (married to a Brit) and she was no doubt responsible. They're having a sale till the end of January with bespoke kilts running around £200-300 (depending on weight) and the full outfit (from lack-of-hat to shoes including a garment bag to store it all) being somewhat less than £700, again depending on weight of the wool. Their hire kilts are £50 (not including jacket and waistcoat) for 5 days. The down side is that they only do hire kilts in 9 tartans.
Now, when you buy a kilt you can have it made in any one of the hundreds of tartans they can order. There are books upon books hanging from their worktops (counters) organized by weight or who-knows-what. What they are not organized by is colour. I had this vision of a mainly blue tartan with yellow detail, rather like the pjs I'm wearing now though these have white not yellow. This tartan does not appear to be commercially available. See, if someone owns the rights to a particular tartan, no one else can weave it. Tartans are serious business. We took a brochure and said we'd come back when we had time to thumb through hundreds if not thousands of tartans.
The next kilt shop we ducked into was on the High Street** and very much the opposite of the little shop with the seamstress sat in the back of the room. They had lots of off-the-racks for tourists and cheap packages for having a kilt or outfit made up. For £60 (including purchase of a shirt and socks) you get the full outfit (and safety knife) for 2 nights, but they take your measurements and order the hire kilt from another company, with a range of 16 tartans. We took a hire brochure and a bespoke brochure and went to a coffee shop to look them over.
Chris had talked himself into, then out of, buying a bespoke kilt by this point (our story takes place over several days) so we concentrated on the hire pamphlet and Chris was quite taken by a dark plum combination - plum jacket, waistcoat, and cravat over a purple and dark grey tartan. Plum instead of sapphire for the wedding? twist my arm. Except, reading the little description, it said the jacket was blue. Glance back at the picture: no, that's very very purple. Dark purple. Purple cravat, purple coat, purple kilt. If the jacket isn't purple, what colour is the rest of it?
I need a fabric sample of whatever tartan Chris decides on to send my bridesmaids and another for my dressmaker to match colours, so we decided to go back to the Chain Kiltshop and buy a scarf or a postcard - anything they had in the same pattern. We could see the true colours and I'd have my fabric samples. Problem solved, right?
No.
Excuse me? No. There is nothing they carry in that tartan. They didn't even have a hire kilt in shop that we could see (though she did think there would be a sun-bleached on in a window display that we could look at - except when we walked past it was covered by a huge SALE! sign and four people leaning against it, waiting for the bus). Remember how I said people own specific tartans? Well this company owns the rights to most of the tartans they hire and all they do is kilt hire. And what did the Chain Kiltshop have to say about not having a fabric sample we could look at? Well, the kilts come in a week before the event so you can make sure everything looks and fits right. A week? What precisely does one do a week before one's wedding when it turns out the purple kilts aren't purple?
Another kilt shop we found also hires from this company (at £90 - including purchase of a shirt and socks - because it's a speciality tartan) and they did have a book with the 16 tartans in it and it's actually mostly blue with purple and green. I checked the hire company's website and they don't interface with the public at all. There's an applet to pick your outfit and a retailer-finder. I can't be the only bride who wants fabric samples - samples! a square about 6" by 6" or however big it needs to be to repeat the pattern! - to coordinate colours. I would even be willing to return it with the kilt when we were done! Craziness.
Remember the brochure from the Cute Little Kilt Shop? I said. Didn't they have a purple one you liked? Remember? That one. They have their kilts in-shop. We can ask if they do fabric samples. Not only do they, but she handed me one right there and then. Two, actually (the purple one Chris likes and a complimentary grey and purple one that we may put his groomsmen in for contrast). Chris tried a couple of different kilts on and every style jacket and much admired his reflection in the mirror and spent the rest of the day talking about how surprisingly comfortable it was and how much he enjoyed wearing a kilt and why would anyone ever wear a suit? When we left he was talking about having a kilt made and hiring two jackets - one style for the wedding and a less formal one for the party.
Yes, Dear. Whatever it takes to get you in a kiltyou want.
Oh! And the owner of the Cute Little Kilt Shop holds the rights to this tartan so if I want to order a couple of extra yards that's not a problem and they may be able to have it woven in silk if I want to trim my dress to match.
* well, six months or so.
** both a literal and figurative description in the UK - (almost?) every town has a High Street which is a main retail district full of the same big chain shops you find in any other town in the UK.