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A sold-out concert in Belfast was the venue for the unofficial ‘unveiling’ of the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band’s new kilts.

“When I walked into the room where the band was tuning up for the show and saw the sea of bright new kilts I knew we made a good choice,” says Pipe Major Terry Lee of the band’s updated appearance.  “When we walked out on stage, we really shone.”

The band needed a fresh look says Lee, who spearheaded the idea. Together with band members, they settled on a variation of the traditional ancient Fraser tartan that the band has worn since its inception in 1981.

The colors are brighter, highlighted by a new navy blue that replaces the faded sky blue featured on their previous kilts.

The 47 kilts—each one, hand-sewn and hung for days before being packaged up—were produced at Glasgow’s ALD Kiltmakers and were picked up the day before the band’s Aug. 6 Belfast concert with the Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band of Northern Ireland.

“They had the ancient Fraser tartan for so many years and thought that this year they fancied something slightly new,” says ALD Kiltmakers manager Michele Devine, whose mother, Betty, started the working relationship with the band and their original kilts.

“With the colors, we were in discussion with the band members to pick the shadings, then their selection was sent to the weavers,” Devine explains. “We kept the original pattern but it is slightly different on the back of the kilt, on the pleat side.

“We produced a mock kilt and several individual pleat samples, and the band decided to go with the one we created.”

Once the colours were agreed, on the band worked with Marton Mills, an England-based mill, which produced four bales of the tartan—the equivalent of 60 metres each—plus a little extra for potential new members.

Devine says an average man’s kilt takes 3.7 metres of material, factoring in the pleats and matching of stripes.

Every part of the kilt is hand-stitched, a process that can take up to 12 hours of work, Devine explains. “We also have to take into account the pattern of the tartan so that the stripes in every pleat line up perfectly.” The average hand-sewn kilt has about 29 pleats but varies according to size.

The work is so precise that the shop trains apprentices over a five-year period.

Lee says it was time for a modification and the next task will be to register the new look as the Simon Fraser University tartan.

And while it took time to measure the band members—several live or work in other regions of the world, and taking into account blissful dieting and one pregnancy—Lee says the final product was worth the effort.

The sentiment is shared at ALD Kiltmakers. “It’s nice to see they have snazzy new outfits for the ‘worlds’ this year,” says Devine. We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed that it will do them some good.”
 
That is, good at the world pipe band champion ships on Scotland’s Glasgow Green on Saturday (Aug. 14). The band is seeking its seventh world title, and third straight.

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