How to buy a kilt - the way it used to be done

[Troglodyte]

In the mid 1950s I wore kilts, I had two, leather straps, fastening on the right, rather long on a 5 to 6 year old.
They were quite old when I got them - but I suspect that if the straps had been replaced it would not have been at all obvious.
My sister point blank refused to wear them and I suspect they were passed on to a cousin, but I do wonder just how old they were, (I suspect over 20 years) and how long they lasted.
Whilst I had them they were washed by hand - I suspect that one encounter with hot water in a washing machine would have ruined them beyond recovery, but back then many garments were woollen and my mother used to wash items by hand in the evenings, leave them to drain overnight and then lay them out on a towel to dry.

Many traditional garment had long lives - English smocks, for instance, were often handed down for a couple of generations or more in the case of children's sized ones. Wool, linen and cotton are long lasting, hard wearing, and were mended or reworked with little thought of it being 'just not the thing'.

Anne the Pleater

Even hand-washing a kilt shows your mum is more daring than I would ever be..!

Although I have put tartan fabric though a hot-wash cycle in a wshing-machine, as well as doing it by hand, to see what the results would be, I have no confidence the structure of a kilt would stand up to it.

I mean, the canvas and lining will respond in different ways to the woollen fabric, and the results may be disasterous - so I'm glad to hear your kilts survived their ordeals.

You're dead right about the durability of woollen cloth garments. About 45 years ago, I inheritied some of my grandfather's gear, which included things I know he had made in the early 1920s. I fortunately had the good sense to grow up to be the same size and height as him, so his old clothes fit me perfectly (even now!) are still being worn after 100 years.

The kilt I wear most frequently is also about 100 years old, so the cost-per-wear and value for money of the old thing is at the bottom of one scale and the top of the other. Only wool has this longevity in my experiance. It's geat stuff.