DC Dalgliesh

[jsrnephdoc]

At the Las Vegas Highland Games (and any Games in the southwestern quadrant of the USA) you'll see cowboy hats, Panama hats, Tilly hats, bucket hats, anything and everything that keeps the sun off- even the occasional Kitchener helmet!

I do have one of those wide-brimmed cowboy hat mimickers, and I have actual evidence of me, kilted, in rural Texas in an awful "pretend" Stetson at my wife's brother's wedding reception. I'll try to retrieve that and post it.

My spouse's Dad was a University of Texas sprinter and Olympic Gold Medalist (400 meter relay, Helsinki, 1952), but I refuse to be seen in that awful orange color of their athletic teams. Running career over, he labored briefly as a wide receiver for the LA Rams before being warned at an LA cocktail party that his knees wouldn't survive more than a few years in that role, and that, given his Texas horsemanship skills, he'd do well in the (much safer)! profession of cowboy movie stuntman, where he excelled for almost 3 decades. However, his signature accomplishement in my book was still being able to marry a "stepmom" for my wife younger than she and father a son early in his 70s, who was the groom in that wedding we just attended early this month.

And, assuming Jock is still reading the thread, I've actually considered getting a deerstalker, but in the context of pairing it with a real Inverness Cape. However, having left Montana (about as close to the North Pole as one can get in the USA) for Las Vegas, THOSE woolen garments would just repose in my closets as moth-food!

The notion of the ball-cap is based on what I'd require to shield my eyes from the brilliant LV sun on auto trips to the grocery supermarket. In Bozeman, the goal was to protect my dome from frostbite. Here, the mission is just the opposite, and while a genuine Glenngary or Balmoral is far more likely to invite inquiries from the curious, a bit of tartan on the pate could still honor my Dad while not getting saturated from summer perspiration.

Here's one, probably sourced from one of the Royal Mall tourist traps, but it would serve my purpose, probably sitting atop a T-shirt and shorts, but NEVER above a kilt:

[OC Richard]

What! No fore-and-aft, or deerstalker yet, OCR?

I think I'd better not derail the Dalgliesh discussion further than I have done already!

So let's go here for that https://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f99/hats-99042/

[TheVintageLibertine]

When I had a kilt made by Robert MacDonald of Westcoast Kilts, he said that he only used tartan from DC Dalgliesh because they were the only mill whose quality met his standards.

When I received my kilt, this made sense, because Dalgliesh’s wool feels exactly like Great War era regimental kilts that I’ve handled over the years.

I find myself wondering if there are alternative sources and worrying about the ripple effect on practitioners of traditional kilt making.

[geomick]

I don't know that I've seen DC Dalgliesh wool up close to compare to the House of Edgar and Lochcarron fabric I own.

[figheadair]

When I had a kilt made by Robert MacDonald of Westcoast Kilts, he said that he only used tartan from DC Dalgliesh because they were the only mill whose quality met his standards.

When I received my kilt, this made sense, because Dalgliesh’s wool feels exactly like Great War era regimental kilts that I’ve handled over the years.

I find myself wondering if there are alternative sources and worrying about the ripple effect on practitioners of traditional kilt making.

That sounds like Dalgliesh's F1 weight which was about an 18oz cloth. I have an old kilt in it, wonderful cloth. That range was stopped when the firm was sold a decade + ago.

[Adrian]

I own the yarn stock that came from D C Dalgliesh the base yarns are used by a number of tartan weavers and there are a limited number of suppliers. D C Dalgliesh were still using shuttle based looms for the in house weaves, the weaves produced by the contract weaver (who I'm working with) use a Dornier rapier loom. There are also slight variations in the work done at the finishers.

[OC Richard]

Dalgliesh’s wool feels exactly like Great War era regimental kilts that I’ve handled over the years.

House of Edgar still offers a small range of "regimental" 18oz tartans.

Here https://www.houseofedgar.com/product...ental-tartans/

I have a kilt in this cloth, in Royal Stewart, the tartan worn by the pipers of a number of Scottish regiments (the number getting smaller all the time) and the look and feel of this cloth is quite different to ordinary civilian kilting cloth.

It pretty much feels like a travel rug, and resembles the cloth of a WWI military kilt I used to own (back when size 30 trousers were a bit big on me and I could wear ex-army kit).

It generally has a larger sett-size that civilian heavyweight cloth.

Traditionally the heaver fuzzier bigger-sett cloth was worn by Other Ranks while senior sergeants and officers wore cloth more akin to heavyweight civilian kilting cloth, as can be seen here in the difference between the Pipe Major's cloth and the other pipers' cloth.