The majority of Scotland's residents will end up wearing a kilt at some point in their life for a special occasion. Highland wear is a key aspect of Scottish culture & history but is world renowned and shared by many people wearing kilts from all over the world from all different backgrounds & cultures.
So why wear a kilt ?
Kilts are some of the most versatile pieces for formal clothing a man can buy , kilts are designed to be re-worn and last a life time & sometimes passed down generation to generation. So where is appropriate for a kilt outfit? .
Just just to name a few kilts can be worn to weddings , dinners , burns suppers , proms , communions & ceilidhs.
Kilts can be hired or bought and there's thousands of tartans in the world from clans , to family's , royal tartans , to corporate , universal & private owned tartans.
So why hire with Kiltsforhire?
Kilts for hire is also known as Houston kiltmakers, established in paisley since 1909 , Houston kiltmakers is a true family owned business.
Ken MacDonald is the current owner of Kiltsforhire & it was his great-grandfather William Houston who started the company in the heart of Paisley.
over 100 years later Ewan MacDonald Kens son has followed into his footsteps as the current director. Ken and Ewan are both well known in the tartan industry for their decades of experience , knowledge and tartan designing.
Kiltsforhire kilt packs come with everything your could possible need for your special occasion, you have complete customisation of your kilt outfit and we are proud to offer the largest tartan selection available.
Our team of experts are all fully trained & knowledge on all aspects of highland wear learning from 4th generations of family experience.
Houston kiltmakers only distributes the finest quality garments and accessories and will always try to make highland wear accessible to everyone for many more years to come.
Our values
We are proud to present this website demonstrating highland dress at its best.
We create as much educational guidance content on highland wear to educate and inspire consumers to participate in Scotland's highland wear culture.
We offer expert advice on all aspects of highland dress virtually and in person. our instore experts are welcoming to all customers and enquires , our key focus is to have your feeling good and leaving smiling no hard hitting sales techniques just a passion for what our team does.
Your kilt will be an enduring statement of quality and personal style to be worn with pride.
we would love to see you in store or speak with you virtually for any enquiries you may have.
Breaking down kilt packs
There's three main aspects to your kilt outfit everything else is interchangeable. this applies to hires and buys , lets break it down .
1. Kilt -
Picking your tartan for your kilt is the very first step in building your highland wear outfit. At kilts for hire we only use the best 8 yard heavy weight double width kilts designed to last.
2. Jacket -
We are proud to offer our superlight weight well cut jacket range available in multiple styles & colour variants. our super light jackets are comfortable & not bulky or heavy and perfect for keeping you cool.
3. Sporran -
We offer a wide variety of sporrans to fit every outfit in a variety of furs , cantles & details. We use high quality seal skin , racoon , Nutra , mink or fox fur sporrans.
These are the three main choices and focal points of your kilt outfit and we can build everything else around it from your shirt style /colour to your tie to socks , shoes and accessories.
Brochures
You can see all our hire related brochures and guides under the brochure tab on kiltsforhire.com
& Find all our buy related brochures on the brochure section on the top right section of our kiltmakers.com website.
To specifically view our hire brochure you can click here or to browse our buy collections and guides click here.
We also show lots of useful content , customer pictures, guides & more on our social media channels.
You can click below to access.
YouTube - @houstonkiltmakers
Facebook - @houstonkiltmakers1909
Instagram - @houstonkiltmakers
Twitter - @houstonkilts
Pinterest - @houstonkilts
Origins of highland wear
Tartan is unique to Scotland and is key to its national dress. Highlanders would wrap themselves preparing for battle in the earliest forms of tartans, as years past kilts were forbidden by the government and Scotsmen would be imprisoned for wearing a kilt.
Highland wear made its return after king George Iv visited Scotland, he tartan was engraved into his royal attire & his patronage introduced tartan back into fashion on a global scale.
Families adopted their own tartans and clan crest as a symbol of unity and pride. tartans went on to have common variants like , hunting , modern , ancient, dress & weathered colourings.
Aside from district & clan tartans , Scotland has tartans uniquely of its own like the infamous Scottish national , flower of Scotland , isle of Skye & more. The beauty of this & other national / universal tartans is anyone can wear them regardless of names & clans.
At kilts for hire we even have our own unique tartan designs , all our most hired and best sellers are our Bute heather collection , specially designed by owner Ken MacDonald in the late 2000s.
The Bute heather collection is the perfect selection of tartans for any occasions , most of the designs are neutral with varying pops of colour to tie any outfit / colour palette together.
" The right to wear a tartan "
In recent years misinformation can circulate about who can and cant wear a tartan. people assume only Scottish people can wear tartan or only wear tartan from a specific clans which isn't true majority of the time.
You can wear almost any tartan regardless of age , gender , race , nationality , family or anything. some tartans are private owned like the royal balmoral tartan only designed to be worn by the royals , most other private registered tartans are purely under the ownership of the designer meaning authorisation is needed to produce or wear the tartan.
There's thousands of family and clan tartans and the majority are more than free to use , some people will go on to design their own version of a family/ clan tartan or create one if not assigned to one.
Ewan and Ken MacDonald both offer tartan design and are experts in their fields, they've designed tartans for corporate , royal , commercial & commissions use. Many couples will design their own tartan to combine cultures or have a unified individual tartan for a their special day , we can design a a tartan for almost anything and anyone.