I'm curious because I'm interested in getting a waistcoat that I could wear for summer outdoor events either WITH or WITHOUT one of my kilt jackets. Many of the retailers (St. Kilda, Kinloch Anderson, USA Kilts, and others) offer different takes on the cut of waistcoats (with and without lapels, satin vs, tweed fabric back, with or without pocket flaps, number and style of buttons, etc, but the fabrics typically bear retailer-specific product codes that don't identify their origin.

So, I'm wondering how one goes about choosing the fabric other than asking for a swatch of what looks good on a website "electronic swatch jpeg," but also curious how the mills who weave tweeds compete with each other regarding fabrics that look identical or very similar but come from different mills.

One reason for this quest is that many of the summer highlands games in the US are held in hot climates, where a sun drenched day in an Argyll jacket could make a spectator perspire almost as much as a caber tosser. Why not just wear a shirt? Because my particular shape has mandated suspending my kilts on my body with the help of suspenders, which I prefer not to display. A waistcoat is less stifling than a jacket but hides the braces.

Thanks so much.