Newbie kilt choice help!!!please

[The Wizard of BC]

When I first started out making kilts the new solid color utility style kilts were all the rage.

Before long there were almost 100 makers out there and they were experimenting and trying new things almost daily.

One of the biggest selling points was the machine washability of the fabrics many makers were using. The most successful fabrics were the poly/cotton fabrics similar to that found in "Dockers" brand trousers.

Duck canvas and Denim were also sometimes used but these are 100% cotton and shrink and require ironing after each washing. This was fine for those who prefer a "grung" look but were a lot of extra work for those who want straight pleats without wrinkles.

Denim proved to be a horrid fabric for kilts. Denim continues to shrink throughout it life and without rigorous ironing and manual stretching after each washing soon took on the look of a ballet tutu.

Duck canvas like the fabrics found in the "Carrhart" line of work clothing was often chosen by those looking for the ultimate in durability. But Duck canvas wrinkles just by looking at it. The work clothes trouser legs have human legs inside them and that seemed to keep the wrinkling and shrinking under control better than loose pleats did.

These machine washable fabrics were also found to require lines of machine stitching on both the inside and outside edges of every pleat as cotton and cotton blend fabrics did not hold a crease very well.

The construction of the vast majority of the utility style kilts was more like jeans construction than kilt construction. With jean construction the strength of the garment comes from the strength of the outer fabric and the strength of the stitching.
Kilt construction is more like that found in a suit coat that has hidden interfacing. The strength of the garment comes from the interfacing allowing the outer fabric to drape and swish naturally.

You may notice that there are far fewer utility style makers still out there than there once were.

Part of this is just due to the vagaries of the fashion world. When they first came out, the utility kilts were new and different. Before long the newness factor wore off and the fashion world moved on to the next new thing.

Another factor is that many people bought a solid color kilt because of a very common misunderstanding over Tartan needing some "rights" or "belonging" to wear it. This forum was started and thrived when this type of thinking was shown to be far less important than used to be believed.

And then there seems to be a part of the kilt wearing world that sees the kilt as "uber macho" or use it as some sort of sexual innuendo. Hence all of the advertising with guys in kilts doing very "tactical" stuff or the shirtless guys or the lifting the kilt photos you see so often.

And one big selling point was that the utility style kilts could be worn with the waist down on the hips where blue jeans are worn. Unfortunately this lower waist style, started by the utility kilts, is often carried over into the Tartan kilt world.

I personally have met the guys from Stumptown kilts. Nice guys. They were advertisers here for a short while. Personally I am not a fan of the inverted taper to the aprons that Stumptown kilts developed but many do like it.

I can't say that I have ever seen an Angry Bastard kilt in person. But the Duck canvas fabric probably fits in with the "wrinkled, I don't care what you think" advertising. I would be more concerned about the mixing of light weight Tartan inserts being far less rugged and durable than the Duck canvas parts of the kilt.

So in the end, it comes down to - "What do you want to do in your kilt?" and "What image do you want to portray to the world?"