USA Kilt Buying Guide
We bring you this USA kilts buying guide to Highland wear, Scottish highland wear dress is celebrated globally by people of all cultures, backgrounds & demographics. We ship our premium highland wear goods around the world, including the USA. Kilt outfits have become increasingly popular in the USA, from tartan enthusiasts to Scottish US residents. The beauty of Scotland’s national dress is seen everywhere.
Most of our USA consumer base is mostly interested in buying a kilt/kilt outfit to keep & treasure for many years. Buying a kilt outfit allows you to have a wardrobe staple that can be dressed up or down for any occasion. We offer a wide range of the best highland wear available for purchase in the USA, made and shipped directly from Scotland. From completely customisable kilt outfit packs to pre-styled kilt packs, sourcing Kilts in the USA is a breeze with Houston Kiltmakers.
What is a Kilt & How is it Styled?-
The kilt is believed to date back to the 16th century, originating as a large piece of woven cloth that was wrapped and pleated around the body, secured with a belt, and known as the great kilt. This tradition evolved from the woollen cloak called the plaid. The earlier version of the kilt was worn by the Irish Gaelic over a tunic and was typically plain or featured a simple tartan pattern, often signifying wealth during that era.
Modern day kilts are essentially a “skirt” but don’t let a fellow Scotsman hear you call it one. But modern kilts are make up of a flat inside apron into sewn pleats around the back and back round to a flat front apron with some fringe & buckles to secure. Kilts are a key part of scottish national dress, the beauty of it, is that it is welcomed to anyone, Scots highly encourage everyone to partake in our traditional highland wear.
Kilt outfits can be styled in various ways from old school traditional highland wear outfits, to the classic sleek modern kilt outfits you see today. Kilts used to be everyday attire for durations during scottish history but in the modern age are worn formally to events like weddings, graduations, dinners and loads more & can often be seen worn casually at sport events & football matches.
For a more casual look, kilts can be styled with an old-fashioned ghillie shirt for a dressed-down traditional look. Casual Kilt outfits are very popular among our USA clients, many US customers buy kilts to treasure and pass down to their families. The Majority of kilt outfits will consist of the kilt with either a day, semi-dress or dress sporran, depending on the occasion. Styled with a tweed jacket & waistcoat which come in a variety of styles and paired with matching tie, socks & traditional accessories & ghillie brogue shoes.
Kilts Cultural Significance –
Kilts in Scotland are traditional formal attire. Kilts are worn all around the world by people of all backgrounds and demographics. Kilts are one of the key aspects of Scottish identity and culture, some choose to wear a kilt to celebrate this or to embrace their Scottish heritage.
Wearing a kilt can be sentimental for people, The USA is home to many people who feel connected to tartan and Scotland as part of back of their own background. It could represent them wearing their family name tartan, embracing the country’s beautiful national dress or to feel included and proud of our Scottish heritage. Highlanders and lowlanders fought for the right to wear kilts and many people wear kilts in our of Scotland’s rich history.
During the dress act of 1746 Scots were stripped of their right to wear tartan kilts by the British government as an act of suppression of scottish rebellion & nationalism. Scots fought for their right to wear tartan after being forbidden for 30+ years. Many famous scottish battles took place during the 16th-17th when many soldiers & civilians fought in their kilts and worn kilts as a form of scottish & clan identity. Due to the rich history of tartan & kilts in Scotland, people are very proud to own and wear kilts freely without punishment & to embrace the long battle of owning our national dress.
Why Consider Buying a Kilt?-
Just like a suit, the importance of investing in is kilts are designed to last a lifetime and can be worn to a wide array of events. There will always be specials occasions and events all year long and investing once in a kilt can save hundreds on what you would be hiring an outfit for each individual function which is typically around £110($140)- £175($226). When investing in a kilt there is no obligation to buy the whole outfit and all the accessories, even owning your own kilt it can be styled with a multitude of jackets and accessories and can be reused over and over or passed down the family.
Your kilt is fully customisable and with the largest tartan selection in Scotland we can make your dream kilt. Our kiltmakers are masters in their craft and your kilt will be an enduring statement of quality, designed to last you a life time. Houston Kiltmakers only offers the best luxury highland wear goods available and all handmade in Scotland , alongside the highest quality suppliers, weavers & kiltmakers.
We offer the largest range of tartans available to buy along with a vast range of tweeds and linings to chose from to build your dream outfit. At Houston kiltmakers we don’t do half measures, everything is fully customisable whether you’re considering buying a kilt or a full highland wear outfit. We offer a wide range of accessories for all those important finishing touches. We have our in-house alterations team, who are able to alter your highland wear outfit if needed or resize your existing highland wear garments.
When to start ordering your USA kilts –
We recommend for special occasions booking 9-12 months ahead of the function date. We suggest this as it gives you the widest range of products available to be delivered in time for your function. If a cloth is out of stock it can take 3/4 months for it to be rewoven and back in stock.
The sooner you can book the better as this allows extra time for production and ordering and allows your kilt to come to you in plenty time, and be altered if needed by our in house expert alterations team.
Don’t worry if you are Overseas – you can still experience the same high class service we offer all our customers who visit the store. Communication is key when creating your bespoke Kilt outfit, and we take the time to converse with each customer to make sure that the finished Highland Outfit they receive is exactly how they imagined it.
If you can’t make it into the store you can still send us the required sizes we need to craft your Kilt Outfit. A local tailor/seamstress can take the sizes we need, or you can use our Self-Measurement Guides and helpful measuring videos to take your own sizes to send to us. Don’t worry, we have many years’ experience working on Highland Wear outfits, so will double check all sizes and let you know if we think any measurement you have sent us seems a little bit off!
Selecting a Tartan-
We are proud to offer the largest tartan range available in Scotland. We understand it can be overwhelming presented with so many tartans if you don’t have a tartan already in mind. Our experts will talk you through our wide range of swatch books explaining your opinions and get a feel for tartans your drawn to.
Most people tend to opt for one of 3 types of tartans,
- Family name tartans are more universal tartans associated with family names and clans, many people want to wear the tartan associated with their family if one exists.
- The next kind is neutral tartans; many people look for neutral tartans that can be styled for a special occasion and steer clear of fashion colours.
- Lastly sometimes customers pick a tartan based off their wedding colour palette usually with the help of their partner and select a tartan that compliments their colour scheme , tying the wedding look together.
In recent years misinformation can circulate about who can and cant wear a tartan. People assume only Scottish people can wear tartan or only wear tartan from a specific clans which isn’t true majority of the time. You can wear almost any tartan regardless of age, gender, race, nationality, family or anything. Some tartans are private owned like the royal balmoral tartan only designed to be worn by the royals.
Most other private registered tartans are purely under the ownership of the designer meaning authorisation is needed to produce or wear the tartan. There’s thousands of family and clan tartans and the majority are more than free to use, some people will go on to design their own version of a family/ clan tartan or create one if not assigned to one.
We offer tartan design at Houston Kiltmakers and you can own your own unique tartan special to you for your occasion or corporation.
Building Your Outfit-
Step 1: Choosing Your Tartan
The first step in ordering your kilt is selecting your tartan. We are proud to offer the largest range of tartans available in Scotland. With so many options, it can be overwhelming if you don’t already have a tartan in mind. Our experts will guide you through our extensive collection of swatch books, helping you explore and choose the tartans that catch your eye.
Step 2 : Selecting Your Kilt Finishings
Next, you’ll choose your kilt finishings, determining how the pattern is set out. We offer a wide range of options to suit all budgets. Our experienced kiltmakers, whom we have worked with for years, are committed to delivering the USA the highest quality handmade kilts.
Production Timeline and Measurements
We will arrange production times to accommodate your event date. We will take your measurements or schedule a fitting closer to your event if you are booking well in advance. We recommend ordering your kilt 9-12 months ahead of time, although we can expedite the process and create kilts in as little as 2-3 weeks if necessary. However, nine months in advance is ideal.
Some people often just chose to get a kilt made and hire the jacket & accessories or alternatively build up their highland wear outfit / collection over time usually just starting with a kilt or jacket.
Ordering a Bespoke Jacket
Customizing Your Tweed Jacket
A bespoke tweed jacket can be fully customized in every detail. We will show you our swatch books of tweeds in every colour to match any tartan. You can customize buttons, pockets, lapels, collar, and lining. If you’re unsure, our experts can recommend styling options that pair well together.
Booking and Turnaround Times
We recommend booking 6-12 months in advance for a fully bespoke jacket. We also offer stock jackets in selected styles, which are of the same excellent quality but fitted to standard sizes rather than specific measurements.
When building a kilt outfit the tartan is the centre focus of the outfit followed by a complimentary jacket & waistcoat. dark colour jackets can put increased emphasis on the colours of the tartan keeping the outfit slick and classic. Coloured tweed jackets can create a complimentary look & cohesion to the outfit by selecting a colour from the tartan to tie the outfit together.
Kilt outfits are completely customisable you get to chose every detail but for some this is too much so we also offer a variety of pre styled kilt packs of fan favourite & classic kilt outfits.
Once you have selected your kilt & jacket combo the rest is just a case of picking complimentary accessories to finish the look off but as previously mentioned some opt to build their outfit up over time & some opt for the complete kilt pack.
We hope you have enjoyed this informational blog , you can find out more about highland wear & products on our website Kiltmakers.com & find out brochures here.
For similar blogs you can read about other topics here. You can also browse kilt packs here.
We would love to welcome you into our traditional highland wear store or you can also enquire to us at [email protected] or call us on 0141 889 4879.
