Andrea Chappell’s connection with kilt making is a personal one which began with an inheritance; a kilt passed down from her grandfather, an Argyll and Sutherland Highlander, to her mother, and then to her. Andrea’s mother further encouraged Andrea’s love for kilts, making them for herself and her children in the 60’s and 70’s and inspiring her with her own timeless styling of the garment.

Andrea is passionate about highlighting the breadth of the kilts history, not just it's use for Scottish military and civilian traditions, but also as a garment with everyday use and connections to different parts of the UK.

"My personal ties come largely from my maternal grandfather, as an Argyll & Sutherland Highlander but also from my Irish father and the Scottish-Welsh-northern English history of my husbands family. Our roots cross the celtic cultures found all over the British isles and France, so I enjoy those interconnections and shared influences."

The first kilt Andrea made was crafted after she had designed the Holocaust Memorial Centre for the Macedonian Jews in Skopje and returned with a length of flocked wool felt from the textile market there.

"I incorporated a tartan designed by the Keith Kilt School where I had begun my training and a vintage Macedonian embroidery on cotton in its lining."

At the time Andrea was was attending kilt school once or twice every week alongside her original full time job as an exhibition designer.

"At the time my intention was only to learn to make for myself. I had previously been commissioning a kilt to commemorate every museum build I had been involved with for the previous 25 years. It was an idiosyncratic personal tradition that later became my profession!"

Andrea re-trained at the Keith Kilt School in 2018, learning the traditional hand-stitched kilt making. Her work now fuses historic craft with functionality and sustainable fabric choices.

When asked what influences her design philosophy the most, Andrea replies “it has to be function”.

“I’m an inherently practical person who enjoys the everyday form of well made things that stand the test of time. The functional part of a kilt has been overlooked in recent years, in praise of its more formal role when worn as part of Highland dress. It is a beautiful thing worn that way, but not actually what it was originally intended for, as a practical garment, protecting its wearer from the elements of the harsh Highland climate.”

Andrea explains how the functional, everyday use of the kilt has been lost to it’s formal counterpart and a series of rules about followed a raft of dictates about who, how and when the kilt should be worn.

“None of which have served the industry well in my view, prompting a sense of discrimination and misunderstanding, that thankfully does seem to be turning around now.”

Besides differing perspectives about how and when kilts should be worn, Andrea finds the main challenges arise from the misunderstanding about what constitutes a kilt and how real kilts are made.

A traditional kilt is a bespoke garments meticulously handcrafted from 6 to 8 yards of heavy 100 percent worsted wool tartan. Skilled kiltmakers such as Andrea tailor the fabric to the individual's measurements, pleating it by hand (usually 27 to 31 pleats, the term kilt is derived from the Scots verb kilt, meaning to tuck up), to the set or stripe, and sewing them with strong linen thread for shape and durability, typically with only the waistband attached by machine. One of Andrea's bespoke designs takes approximately 12 weeks to complete, 'priced individually, depending on your choice of design, details and cloth'.

“With machine made options available from brands in quantity, at speed and for less cost, there is still the need to highlight the distinction between the traditional hand stitched craft by independent kilt makers and those made in multiples in factories.”

But it’s clear that alongside their practical function, as with Andrea’s own story, these handmade kilts can hold a lot of personal value. Both through it’s cultural importance and the sentimental value and stories it collects as it is worn and used throughout various chapters of our lives. It's something that Andrea's empathetic handling of personal stories through her exhibition design has surely helped her with.

In a moving example of this, Andrea is currently working on a kilt that belongs to her clients’ late husband, remaking it for her using the shirt he wore at their wedding as the lining on the inside and embroidered with poetry that was special to them both. 

“It was almost ruined by moths and we have salvaged it with darning, appliqué patches and new straps and buckles and I am delighted it will be worn again.”

Andrea balances traditional kilt making process with her own contemporary design by paying close attention to the cloth she uses and her client's intentions.

“I am guided by the best use of the material, often to make best use of a limited resource if i’m working with vintage, headstock or a re-make. I am adapting textiles that might not usually be considered kilt cloth, to create something that will function separately to the formalities of the military style kilts worn as Highland Dress.”

Andrea recalls one such ‘non-traditional’ kilt fabric which has also one of her most challenging projects to date - a silk organza. The organza kilt formed part of the Dye Weave Pleat collection made with Cavan Jayne. She had to plan the non repeating pattern for a kilt directly onto flat cloth, which was then hand painted with natural dye pigments formulated by Cavan Jayne, before pleating into the design.

When sourcing her fabrics locally, Andrea takes time to understand their origins. Although when using vintage fabrics, she explains, there often isn’t that opportunity.

“It is important for me to have a relationship directly with the mill and most ideally the weaver wherever possible and to advocate for their work as much as my own. We are extremely lucky that Moray is one of the textile hubs of Scotland, with a long history of mills served by local agriculture— though a far cry from the original number we have much to promote on the doorstep.”

As well as the reduction in British mills, kilt-making is also in decline and now sits on the Red List of Endangered Crafts. Andrea stresses the importance of finding new ways to bring more apprentices, traineeships and entry level positions into existing kilt-making businesses. 

“We have come a long way to encourage people into the craft and train as kilt makers, but there is a long way yet to go for those new kilt makers to have a viable careers in kilt-making.”

What is encouraging is the wholesome rituals Andrea uses at the start of the day as she gets into a creative headspace.

“I do have a few rituals that help keep me straight, there is always a morning coffee in my greenhouse with my sketchbook and a walk in the woods or on the beach toward the end of the day, both feed my brain and soul and somehow offer the solution to any given problem.”

You can find more of Andrea's work on her website or Instagram.

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