USA Kilt Buying & Ordering Process

A large portion of our customer base is US consumers, we ship our premium kilt outfits globally and have done so for decades. We strive to bring our A-class service to all our customers regardless of location. This guide covers in detail the process of ordering a kilt with us and how to get started. If your looking for further information on buying a kilt from us if your in the USA, also we recommend reading our USA kilt buying guide here.

Many USA customers come to us as they want an authentic Scottish traditional kilt or outfit. We are a world renowned kiltmakers, people internationally know of us for our exceptional customer service and our luxury highland wear USA kilt exports make up a considerable portion of our sales and we are happy to bring the scottish experience directly to you.

Ways of Ordering-

There is two main ways of booking in to buy a kilt with us, the first being using our kilt / outfit builder tool on our website found here. This take you through the steps of selecting the tartan, weight, finishes & sizes of ordering a kilt. There is a tartan search bar perfect for locating any particular tartans or names you have in mind.

You can order a kilt, trews, jackets, pre-styled kilt pack & a bespoke kilt pack through out website, please see our drop down menu.

Most commonly people will contact us directly through email or telephone. We recommend this as we can provide our exceptional customer service and simplify the process down much easier. You can enquire to our email at [email protected] or call us on 0141 889 4879. From here we can discuss what your looking for and the options we have for you. We can also arrange zoom web calls and other arrangements as a consultation for you.

We recommend anyone who interested in buying a kilt, to read a little bit about kilts & tartan to gauge what your interested in. This guide is a great start and we have similar related content worth reading here.

Order Process-

Let’s say you’ve reached out to us, we would proceed to discuss what your after, alongside sending you relevant brochures. We have a few brochures and although it may seem much, they are very worth the read as they breakdown the process and help you decide what sort of tartan, finishing and cloth weights would be suitable for you.

We would cover this with you via email or call and the first step in proceeding is selecting your tartan, we have a tartan finder on our website if your interested in a specific tartan. We are proud to offer the largest range of tartans available and can send over pictures of swatches & model pictures if possible. We only use the finest tartan mills in Scotland all authentic & manufactured with the best quality Scottish wool.

When selecting a tartan people often go down one of these routes:

• -Opting for a tartan based on your family name or link to a clan, most people if applicable will select a tartan of a clan or sept relating to them or their partners name.

• -Neutral tartans have been a massive hit due to their versatility & timeless colour palettes, some even pick their tartan based off wedding colour palettes.

• -You can also pick any tartan regardless of its name or colours but just picking a tartan that appeals to you. We are proud to offer the largest tartan selection available. You can view our gallery here or browse with our tartan finder.

• -If you want to be truly one of a kind, we offer tartan design & special weave services. This means your tartan will be exclusive to you and designed for you.

If you are interested in tartan design we recommend a little read of our “learn about tartan design” blog here. You can also learn about tartans anyone can wear here.

In Scottish culture there is no such thing as the right to wear a tartan. Tartan unites people from all over the world in all cultures to embrace and celebrate a key piece of Scottish identity. Within Scotland it’s highly encouraged to participate in highland wear and open to everyone of every background, many tourists will embrace Scottish culture in it’s entirety as its a sign of respect and welcoming.

It’s been misinterpreted that only people of that name can wear said clan tartan and this is far from true. In terms of most generic, universal name tartans, anyone can wear them. Many family tartan designs have changed over the years through new variants and colour palettes, this would be for more private owned tartans. Some people will design their own version of a family tartan unique to them. There’s plenty of tartans that are free to everyone and popular all over the world.

Once you have selected your tartan we will run your through the set of your kilt this is split into two options.

Regimental setting & Normal setting (repeat of the pattern): See below for an example

The left is the normal sett, this basically means the pleats at the back of the kilt follow the same pattern as the front.

This is ideal to show off the pattern and have a cohesive look.

On the right is regimental setting, this is where often a key line or centre line is used as a point of repetition in the pleating. This shows more of that one colour and is visually striking, some tartans may have a few lines to pick as the repeat but some may only have one.

Let’s see what these look like on a kilt–

Lastly let’s discuss kilt finishes as this is usually the last step in ordering your kilt.

In a summary we only provide the best kilts using our trusted expert scottish kiltmakers. A lot of shops prey on tourists and sell them cheap junk but we are a real kiltmakers, family owned since 1909. We specialise in the best highland wear Scotland has to offer so you know your getting a true quality piece of scottish culture.

We offer 4 different types of kilt finishes all will last you a long time if you look after your kilt and realistically have very little difference visually we just offer 4 tiers of our quality kilts:

The kilt is 90% hand cut and made, with reinforcing by machine around buckles, waistband, belt loops and all key important areas. The very best kilt anyone can buy. The extra machining makes this the perfect kilt that will last you a life time with no hassle or construction work needing done later in its life.

All are good kilts and will look the same, you kilt finishing will most likely be based on how much you will wear it. For a kilt for a one off or few occasions in it’s lifetime we recommend a machine made but if you want a reliable kilt you can wear again and again and again and will be heavily used in its lifetime.

Forms & Measuring-

Usually you will be asked to fill out a mail order form which we will cover in detail along with taking your own measurements. We aim to take the bear of as much paper work as possible but mail order forms are a summary of what you are looking for. Let’s cover it section by section.

If you are looking to skip this section you can scroll down to the shipping, tax, alteration & turn around sections below.

This is our mail order form we will break this down and explain each part but you can view this form full scale by clicking the image on the above.

You will be first met by the top of the form in which you will leave key details such as your name, address, contact information & payment information.

Your order number & delivery date will be completed by us.

Realistically we are most likely going to be filling this out for you. But we are covering the form in this post so you understand every step of the process.

You can chose to submit a partially filled out form to use when enquiring but this isn’t overly necessary.

You can chose to leave card details and we will contact you about pricing your order and deposit amount but no payment is needed on initial enquiry we can collect payment through invoices, charging a car provided or taking payment by email/phone.

Next the middle of the form covers what you are actually ordering including your preferred shipping options.

This can be completed by yourself or us but we will most likely do this for you alongside pricing your order.

Here you can also select if you would like express shipping & note all accessories with the order.

The bottom part of the order form asks for sizes such as collar, chest, waist, kilt length, shoe size, height weight.

As mentioned before we 9/10 times take care of this form and its mainly the measuring form you will complete by yourself but not to worry at we have plenty of measuring guides.

Realistically to order all we need is your details such as name, address, contact information, what you looking to order or we can communicate via call/email/zoom meetings to decide this.

And then your self measurements which we are about to cover. We aim to do as much of the paperwork on our end to save you hassle and make it a seamless easy booking process.

Attached to the mail form is a self measurement sheet, we ask you to complete this as if you aren’t able to be measured in store, we can still get your measurements to actually make your highland wear garments. This can be done by yourself, with an assistant or some clothing/alteration stores offer measuring services but not to worry we make it as simple as we possibly can.

It is essential that you don’t guess measurements or use outed measurements, there is no point ordering beautiful highland wear from us if there’s a chance it wont fit. This is why we will cross check your measurements and check it all adds up.

See below the self measurement form but don’t worry we will break this down:

Initially we know it seems scary but lets go over it together. The form is split into 4 sections covering kilt, jacket, waistcoat & trouser measurement boxes.

If you are planning to order just a kilt you would ONLY complete the kilt section or if your ordering a jacket then the jacket & waistcoat section.

So if hypothetically you ordered a tartan trews outfit & jacket the only sections you could complete are the jacket, waistcoat & trousers sections. Let’s cover each section below.

The jacket & waistcoat section explain the measurements needed for a bespoke/ made to order jacket & waistcoat set.

If you are only ordering a stock jacket you don’t need to complete all these measurements as they aren’t needed but we will still ask you for your chest, waist & sleeve length so we can order the right sized stock jacket for you.

We recommend if you own a smart jacket of blazer measuring with this on and avoid any heavy clothing like thick jumpers that may skew your measuring.

Let’s cover the basics:

• A chest measurement is where you have a measuring tape held around the widest point of your chest laying flat and level around your body. This is marked as measurement. (Marked 3)

• Your waist measurement is taken the same way find the centre of your waist (usually around your belly button for most) wrap the measuring tape around your waist ensuring the measuring tape is flush and level. This does not need to be a tight measurement. (Marked 4)

• To measure your seat, this is essentially a hip measurement so find the widest point of your hips usually around the bottom of the crotch and measure the same as before. (Marked 5)

• Measurement 1-2 is your collar to waist which can be taken by starting your measuring tape at the bottom of the back of your neck down to your waist. (Marked 1-2) You may need an extra pair of hands to do this.

• To measure the length of your jacket, starting from the same position before at the bottom of the back of your neck and Measure from here to point 7 (your seat) the hips. (Marked 1-7)

• To measure A-B, measure flat from the centre of your back to the beginning of your arm. We recommend having your arms flat when doing this as you can measure from the centre of the back to where your arm meets your back laying flat. (Marked A-B)

• To measure C-D, hold the measuring tape at the top of your armhole socket (top of your arm) and measure flat along your shoulder to approximately the middle of your neck/centre back.(Marked C-D) This can be tricky to measure so you may want to do this in a mirror or with a friend.

• And finally to finish up, measuring your crown to cuff. measure from the side of your arm from the top to just past your wrist. (Marked 6)

If you made it this far that’s the hard bit done, measuring for jackets is a lot more meticulous than anything else so that is the longest part over. For any additional support check out our YouTube jacket measuring videos below.

Video 1 – Click Here

Video 2 – Click Here

Moving onto the waistcoat there is 5 key measurement 2 of which you may have already just taken if you followed our jacket measuring guide.

• Measurement 1-2 starts at the back of your neck and measures round to the front to the top of where your waistcoat would start. (Marked 1-2) This may be easier to measure if you have an existing waistcoat, try keep the measuring tape flat while doing this.

• Following this measurement 1-3 is essentially the same but once reaching point two continue to measure down to point 3 which would be the bottom of your waistcoat.(Marked 1-3) Try to do this is one fluid measurement.

• Measuring 1-6 may require a second pair of hands, starting from the bottom of the back of your neck and measuring flat and down to the bottom of your back.(Marked 1-6) This is the height of your waistcoat from the back.

• Lastly ending with the chest & waist measurement, to take a chest measurement wrap the measuring tape around the widest point of your chest and ensure the tape is flat & level. (Marked 4) Repeat this same technique around your natural waist again ensuring the tape is level and flush. (Marked 5)

That’s us covered waistcoats, again if your needing any additional help we recommend watching our waistcoat measuring video here.

Moving onto the most common & easiest to measure, let’s cover kilts. The form will ask for your height and weight as this gives us a rough guide to check if your measurements seem in proportion to your build and we can spot if a measurement is way off by having this information.

• Starting with the waist this is measured slightly higher than before as kilts sit high, if you wrap the measuring take around your waist around 1 inch above your belly button and take a firm measurement ensuring the tape is flat and level.(Marked 8)

If you are of a larger frame we recommend taking the measurement of the widest point of your waist and take a really firm measurement. This ensures your kilt will stay up and not fall down.

• To take your seat measurement, wrap the tape around the widest point of your hips ensuring the tape is laying flat & level. (Marked 10)

• Lastly measuring your kilt length by starting 1 inch above your belly button and holding the tape straight down to the middle of your knee. (Marked 9)

Just like that you have measured for your kilt we also have a video here if needed.

Last but not least lets cover trousers, If you have a pair of well fitting trousers you may wish to measure with these on.

• Measuring your waist is the same as before but just to recap, wrap the measuring tape around your natural waist with the tape laying flat & level around your body. (Marked 5)

• We want to measure you seat (hips) again the same way by wrapping the measuring tape around the widest point of your hips ensuring the tape is laying flush and level.(Marked 6)

• Next we want to measure loosely around your knee and again at your ankle for measurements Marked 7 & 8. This determines how baddy/wide your trousers are.

• To determine the length of your trousers, on your side measure from your waist to your ankle. (Marked 1-2)

• And lastly we need an inside leg measurement which you can take by measuring from the crutch to your ankle. (Marked 3-4)

Just like that we have covered trousers. Our team will provide the best service we can and send over measuring guides and links to all our videos, if your really struggling you can get in touch and we can even send over a demonstration.

Shipping Process-

After you have booked your order we will order the cloth in and then send it to our kiltmakers or source your bespoke/buy jacket & accessories if applicable. Once everything you ordered has arrived and been quality checked by us we will box your order up with everything wrapped securely and well protected & with a provided garment bag.

When shipping to the USA & Europe we use FedEx services, we find this is the best service to get your outfit to you efficiently & securely.

The postage turn around time is around 2-5 days but this can be affected by distance & things like bank holidays & external factors. We usually find there is little to no problems when shipping, you will be contacted with all the shipping details for your order.

We highly recommend booking 9-12 Months ahead of your function to allow for turnaround times & production of your cloth. Booking in advance gives you the widest range of choice and customisation for your order. In the event of any delays ordering in advance means there is no risk of missing your function.

We offer an express service but this comes at an additional charge and will depend on if your tartan is in stock and how quickly we can get it to the kiltmaker and made for you. Express services can have your made to measure kilt to you in as little as 1-2 weeks but we do not recommend this if possible. Booking in advance is the best way to ensure your looking good in the best highland wear in plenty of time.

Alterations & Changeovers-

When your outfit arrives we recommend you give your outfit a try out and this means if you have lost/gained weight we can amend your order.

If you have a stock jacket this is fairly easy to change over as we can order you a better size after you ship it back to us which we can cover or we can shorten sleeves & change buttons. Kilts can fairly easily be changed as the buckles can be let in or out and the length can be shortened.

We can send a kilt altering guide if you would like to have your kilt altered by a seamstress near you rather than sending back. If your bespoke jacket needs taken in or let out this is a more complex alteration and we would communicate with you to discuss what needs done and the best arrangement.

We recommend for bespoke items like trews. jackets & waistcoats, it’s best to buy these when your close to/ at your ideal or consistent weight. If your going on a big weight loss or muscle bulking diet you can order a few sizes down but we would recommend if your considering bespoke to be close to your preferred weight to avoid excessive alterations or chance of it not fitting.

We run into very few fit issues with bespoke items as they are made to your measurements issues only tend to arise if you have had a spike in weight gain/ loss in the time from ordering to receiving. Our team is very accommodating to provide solution based answers to your outfit queries or concerned.

Tax Free Prices & Customs Taxes-

When ordering a kilt with us when your based outside of the UK you actually get a better deal as you get tax free pricing as you don’t need to pay a tax fee to the British HMRC or follow UK vat laws.

you may have to pay an import/customs fees for your country/state this will depend on your residence. The main benefit is not having to pay UK tax on top as your order is UK tax free.

SEE BELOW ATTACHED MAIL ORDER FORMS, FAQS & BROCHURE, CLICK TO VIEW:

• MAIL ORDER FORM

• BUY BROCHURE

• FAQS