Can Scotland's kilts be saved by a new generation of makers?

The Herald Scotland

27-07-2025

There are no sewing machines humming, no conveyor belts. Just the thread being pulled through wool and the quiet concentration on their craft.
Twenty-seven-year-old Kayleigh Ivanov and 20-year-old Zoe Walker may not look like the saviours of one of Scotland's oldest traditions and yet, they may well be.
Apprentice kilt maker Kayleigh Ivanov (Image: ScotClans)
For they are among a very rare breed of young apprentices learning to hand stitch kilts – a craft that, despite the garment's status as Scotland's national dress, is at risk of slipping away.
Classed as an "endangered" craft by Heritage Crafts, the charity overseeing traditional UK skills with King Charles as patron, it's estimated that only between 11 and 20 professional traditional kilt makers remain who rely on it as a full-time livelihood.
And while there are signs of increasing demand for handmade kilts - especially from international customers - there is a stark shortage of young people entering the trade.
That issue was highlighted recently by Inverness kiltmaker Ian Chisholm, of Chisholms Highland Dress. Now 79, he is anxious over where the next generation of kilt makers might come from.
Zoe Watson, 20, is believed to be Scotland's youngest traditional kilt maker (Image: ScotClans)
He recently told local newspaper, the Inverness Courier, of his struggle to find an apprentice and an experienced kiltmaker to help keep the traditional craft going.
'It does get more difficult to get young people interested,' he said.
'When we've started with young apprentices in the past, sometimes they've found it's not right for them.
'They really need to have an interest in tailoring and learning the skills of needlework.
'At the moment, we're looking for another kiltmaker and an apprentice - but time will tell.'
Although tartan is rarely out of fashion - from last year's Christian Dior fashion event in Perthshire to this week's launch of a new Commonwealth Games 2026 tartan - he is not the only one to have struggled to find new blood to work with it.
Leith training workshop The Kiltmakery, where Kayleigh and Zoe learned their skills, was founded in 2017 by English businesswoman, Amanda Moffet, after she struggled to find a traditional kilt maker for her Highland dress and clan products business, ScotClans.
'My kilt maker was retiring and everywhere I looked (for a replacement) I hit a dead end,' she says.
A kilt making workshop at The Kiltmakery (Image: ScotClans)
'The message was that hand-sewn was finished.
'People said 'why would you want to make kilts by hand? You won't make any money'.
'But I knew as soon as I touched a machine-made kilt that it was different. It wasn't what I was used to seeing being made and what I had been selling.
'I remember thinking 'this is just awful'.'
Frustrated, she embarked on a kilt making course and learned uncomfortable truths about the business of kilt making on the way.
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'I found out why kilt making was in such a bad state,' she says.
'In the past, every kilt store would have had a workshop attached. But, when hire kilts and machine-made kilts came along, it was cheaper to have people work from home.'
As well as shutting down traditional routes for apprentices to learn skills beside experts, she found surprising secrecy within the industry around kilt making techniques that stifled collaboration and learning.
The closure of tartan and tweed producing woollen mills further eroded skills and threw the door open to cheaper foreign imports.
Particularly troubling was how the skill of the kilt makers – usually women working alone at home – was grossly undervalued.
Scotland is in the grip of a shortage of skilled traditional kilt makers (Image: ScotClans)
'There was a dark side to it,' Amanda says. 'There was a level of bullying that was shocking.
'Making a kilt is one of the hardest things you will learn to sew but while it might retail for £700, the average pay for the kilt maker could be only around £70 for three days of work.
'I heard of one woman who was paid just £45 per kilt. When questioned why, the response was that women were doing it just for 'gin money'.'
'I thought this was outrageous. The consumer doesn't know this, yet this is the national dress of Scotland.'
She launched The Kiltmakery with tutor Nikki Laird, at that time the country's youngest traditional kilt maker.
Since then, they have passed on the skills of kilt making to dozens of others, mostly hobby makers looking for a new interest.
Amanda Moffet launched The Kiltmakery after becoming frustrated at the lack of traditional kilt makers (Image: ScotClans)
Kilt making as a hobby appealed to both Kayleigh and Zoe as they navigated the stress of the pandemic.
Having never considered it as a potential career, both became hooked on the rhythmic action of pleating, stitching and folding. Their natural flair and enthusiasm led to apprenticeships at ScotClans.
For Kayleigh, who was diagnosed with autism after graduating in graphic design from Napier University, the gentle process of kilt making has improved her general well-being, boosted her confidence and calmed her anxiety.
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'It's not something I ever thought of as a career but I'm so glad I found it,' she says.
'It's surreal when I see a customer wearing a kilt that I've made. It's humbling to think that I made that from cloth a few days earlier.'
There's satisfaction in engaging in a timeless skill too, she says.
'People come in with their grandfather's kilt that doesn't fit them, and I can give it a new lease of life.
'You open it up, and you can see how old it is inside, and how other people have worked on it.
'Sometimes the kiltmaker has put their name on it.
'I can add my name to it so when it's altered in years to come, the next person will see who has worked on it.'
Alongside her, Zoe – now Scotland's youngest traditional kilt maker - got her first taste of the craft aged 16 alongside her mum, Jo, an experienced sewer.
'There's a certain state of mind you get into when making a kilt, particularly when you're doing the pleats,' says Zoe.
Apprentice kilt maker Zoe Watson works on hand stitching a kilt (Image: ScotClans)
'It's repetitive, but you are creating a garment at the end and that fills you with self-confidence.
'Before this, I was so anxious that I would not walk to the shop by myself. The process of making a kilt with my hands has been good for my mental health.'
Jo, meanwhile, was so shocked by the lack of opportunities for young people to learn the craft that she has now launched a new heritage textiles course through Callander-based charity Làmhan, offering free sessions for young people to learn kilt making.
Another Englishwoman who's made Scotland her home, she finds it hard to grasp how such a unique element of Scottish culture has come close to slipping away.
Apprentice kilt maker Kayleigh Ivanov (Image: ScotClans)
'Kilt making in Scotland is in a terrible state, and it's depressing that it's like that,' she says.
'We found there's an SVQ in Kilt Making at SCQF level 6 but couldn't find anywhere near us for Zoe to do it.
'Then it turned out that the only external verifier for the whole of Scotland had retired."
The course is also structured to support students mainly seeking work in producing machine made kilts, with only a small element devoted to hand skills.
'It's desperate,' she adds. 'The kilt is an iconic garment so closely associated with culture for hundreds of years and we are not training people to make it.
'If we don't do something now to get young people interested and give them the opportunity to learn in school and colleges, the craft will be lost.'
Kilt maker and Great Sewing Bee contestant Ailsa Lyall says young people are often not aware that crafts can become a career (Image: Genevieve Gates)
In Glasgow kilt maker and 2024 Great Sewing Bee contestant Ailsa Lyall, says creative skills tend to be under-appreciated leaving young people assuming there is no career path.
'I think generally creative career paths can sometimes be seen as less valuable than academic ones.
'That certainly felt like the case when I was in school, and despite having an interest in fashion and textiles I definitely felt pushed to pursue a business focused line of study.
'It's taken me a long time to break free of some of those ideas and discover that creativity can be more than a hobby.
Kilt maker Ailsa Lyall blends traditional methods with contemporary styling (Image: Genevieve Gates)
'Sometimes you don't know a career path even exists until you see an example of someone doing it.'
Traditional routes of learning crafts in the home have also been lost, she adds.
'Somewhere along the line and probably in connection with the rise of fast fashion, people have become disconnected with the skill that it takes to make clothing and the importance of how to care for them long term.
'They are then not able to pass on this knowledge to their children, and that's where these vital skills start to get lost.
'Sadly, you can really see this in kilt making. For years it was a skill that would have been passed down through generations verbally.'
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Hand-sewn kiltmaking was officially added to the Heritage Crafts Red List of Endangered Crafts in 2021. Mary Lewis, Head of Craft Sustainability at Heritage Crafts, says that while awareness has grown and ignited interest among people wanting to learn, actual full-time practitioners remain few.
'A lot of people are learning but most who go on to make kilts will do it as a small sideline to another part of a business,' she says.
Ailsa Lyall wears one of her longer length traditionally made kilts (Image: Genevieve Gates)
'The pool of people we would consider to be time-served kilt makers is being lost.
'It's like Saville Row, it's the top end that is endangered. The people who have the high-end skills are few and far between, so the quality is affected.'
She says change requires a shift in how society values craft and ensuring the chance to learn isn't only available to those who can afford expensive training courses.
'Craft is not often taken seriously in schools, yet it's a much bigger sector than people imagine, and underpins a lot of other occupations.
'But because young people are not exposed to it, we are losing skills that have been part of our cultural heritage for many generations and were once easily very accessible.'
Meanwhile in Inverness, Alastair Robinson of Chisholms Highland Dress says the business is still searching for new blood to continue its long tradition of kilt making.
'We have two kilt makers who are amazing and who Mr Chisholm pays very well. But they only have so much time left to teach someone and it's hard to find the right person to take on as an apprentice.
'We are trying to appeal to younger generations and people who are already skilled in needlework, that this can be a job for them.
Demand is said to be surging for hand made kilts, particularly from international customers (Image: ScotClans)
'Most people going into textiles as a career are advised to not necessarily focus on kilt making, and they are being told they need a much broader range of skills.'
Back in Leith, ScotClans' order books for hand made kilts is filling up, including a major commission from a US Air Force unit for almost 200 hand-stitched kilts.
'For that kind of order, you need people in-house to maintain quality,' Amanda says. 'We need to fill the gap to get kids and teenagers interested in Scottish heritage and textiles.'