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Alan H What did a kilt cost in 1960,... 11th February 08, 12:45 PM
beloitpiper If you can find the prices, I... 11th February 08, 02:07 PM
James MacMillan I spent $235 in 1965 for a... 11th February 08, 02:18 PM
MacMillan of Rathdown Cars & Kilts-- A... 11th February 08, 02:36 PM
Macman I paid $200 Cdn. for my first... 11th February 08, 05:52 PM
Phil In 1950 my father-in-law paid... 12th February 08, 01:05 AM
MacMillan of Rathdown Crucified Before 12th February 08, 10:52 AM
Alan H OK, James MacMillan paid $265... 12th February 08, 11:26 AM
thescot Just goes to show you what... 3rd April 09, 09:55 AM
McClef I would like to see the... 3rd April 09, 12:23 PM
English Bloke Believe me Trefor... They... 3rd April 09, 01:03 PM
Alan H The backside of this figure... 12th February 08, 04:30 PM
davedove I would have to pretty much... 13th February 08, 07:19 AM
Colin Great point Alan, and let's... 13th February 08, 10:30 AM
McClef Alas wrapping fish and chips... 13th February 08, 10:46 AM
Phil Was it some EU directive like... 13th February 08, 01:15 PM
Phil Let's face it, Alan, there... 14th February 08, 02:23 AM
MacMillan of Rathdown Truer Words... 14th February 08, 09:56 AM
Jack Daw Go to the nursing home and... 2nd April 09, 11:21 AM
Alan H I tend to think like this.... 15th February 08, 12:31 PM
Alan H *bump* Just 'cause I... 2nd April 09, 10:28 AM
pdcorlis Oh how I'd love to see a... 2nd April 09, 11:07 AM
jhockin I bought my first kilt from a... 2nd April 09, 11:07 AM
Jaggy thistle My first new kilt cost £40 in... 3rd April 09, 08:54 AM
  1. #1
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    What did a kilt cost in 1960, 1970, 1980 etc?

    Does anybody know? Anybody have copies of old catalogs, or something?

    I wonder if, factoring in inflation....a kilt costs significantly more now than it did 20 - 30 - 40 years ago.

  2. #2
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    If you can find the prices, I can do the conversion.

    http://www.measuringworth.com/index.html

  3. #3
    James MacMillan is offline Membership Revoked for repeated rule violations.
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    I spent $235 in 1965 for a full tank from Scotland. Of course, I didn't call it a tank then. Plus - That didn't include s&h or any other charges, but those charges weren't much, cause they didn't register in my memory.

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    Cars & Kilts-- A Comparision

    In 1969, while working in Hollywood, I bought a brand new Morgan +8 for $3200. That same year I bought a hand made kilt for $265 from James Lannon, who had a small shop on the Royal Mile.

    Oh yes, and gold was $35 an ounce.

    In 1999 the price of new Morgan +8 in San Francisco was $59,000-- The price had increased by a multiple of 20. In 1999 Lannon was long gone from the kilt business, but a new hand made kilt was less than $500 from Stewart Christie, not exactly a firm noted for under-pricing it's wares.

    Gold was around $450 an ounce.

    So what does this suggest?

    Kilts (like sports cars) are luxury goods. Unlike Morgans however, their price has more or less kept pace with inflation, and in real terms probably only cost 15-25% more than they did in 1969.

  5. #5
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    I paid $200 Cdn. for my first kilt, made-to-measure, in 1974, from a Scottish shop in Victoria, B.C.
    "Touch not the cat bot a glove."

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    Phil is offline Membership Revoked for repeated rule violations.
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    In 1950 my father-in-law paid £7:10/- (£7.50 or $14.65) for a Montrose doublet - this is it today 57 years later!



    At the same time he bought a kilt for £7:15/- (£7.75 or $15.14) which I had altered to fit and wear to this day. He also bought the jabot you see in the photo for the princely sum of 8/6d (42p or 82 cents) full tartan hose for £1:17/6 (£1.80 or $3.52) which I still wear with the kilt but wait for it - he had to pay £3 ($5.86) for a leather belt and £3:12/6 (£3.65 or $7.13) for a sporan.

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    Crucified Before

    Quote Originally Posted by Phil View Post
    In 1950 my father-in-law paid £7:10/- (£7.50 or $14.65) for a Montrose doublet - this is it today 57 years later!



    At the same time he bought a kilt for £7:15/- (£7.75 or $15.14) which I had altered to fit and wear to this day. He also bought the jabot you see in the photo for the princely sum of 8/6d (42p or 82 cents) full tartan hose for £1:17/6 (£1.80 or $3.52) which I still wear with the kilt but wait for it - he had to pay £3 ($5.86) for a leather belt and £3:12/6 (£3.65 or $7.13) for a sporan.
    I'll probably be crucified again for saying this, but Phil's posting points out why you should scrimp and save to buy the best quality highland wear. It lasts forever and in the long run cost far less than repeatedly buying cheap stuff and replacing it with more of the same. Now all you X Marxists who disagree can get out you cross and nails...

  8. #8
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    OK, James MacMillan paid $265 in 1965 for an 8 yard
    In 1968, MacMillan of Rathdown paid $265 for same
    Macman paid $200 Canadian in 1970 for a custom kilt.

    According to Wikipedia, from WWII up until 1970 the Canadian Dollar was fixed in avlaue to the US dollar, and .925 Canadian dollars = 1 US dollar. So that mean that Macman's kilt cost $216 US dollars in 1970.

    Let's just say that the average nice kilt purchase in 1970 cost $250 and be done with it. Does that seem like a reasonable simplification?

    Now, while it's hard to quantify inflation since 1970, there are some very basic bits of data out there. Here are a couple of examples:

    Inflation since 1990

    http://www.inflationdata.com/inflati...lInflation.asp

    Here's a nifty chart derived from US Government Statistics:

    http://www.ckollars.org/inflation.html

    To GROSSLY oversimplify, the annual inflation rate during most of the 1970's was around 4-5 percent. During most of the 90's was more like 7-8 percent with short peaks around 12%... during most of the 90's was back down to 4-5 percent. If we make the GROSS assumption that the average annual inflation rate from 1970 to 2005 was 6 percent ....

    ...which BTW, is what most retirement and investment calculators use for their rough calculations. Oh, hey look I just found a nifty "inflation calculator" on line...cool!

    Here it is: http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

    Here's another one for our UK friends: http://www.measuringworth.com/ppower...tors/ppoweruk/

    Anyway, I used the Westegg calculator. According to that calcualtor, over that 35 year period of time from 1970 to 2005, that $250 kilt should, if no other price increases go into effect but inflation, it SHOULD cost $1327.90



    $1327.90

    Seems like a custom kilt from Barb or Matt or another trained kiltmaker is in fact a pretty good deal, eh?

  9. #9
    Phil is offline Membership Revoked for repeated rule violations.
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    OK Alan, that means my father-in-law's kilt costing $15.14 in 1950 would now cost $130.38 in 2007. That seems an even better deal to me.

  10. #10
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    Here's another inflation calcultor: http://www.halfhill.com/inflation.html
    According to Toms calculator, over that 35 year period of time that $250 kilt SHOULD cost $1287.09 just due to price increases from average inflation.

    .........

    $1327.90........ $1287.09 Whoah, NELLIE.

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