About Kathy Lare Kiltmaker

Kathy Lare has over fifteen years of experience in Scottish kiltmaking. What started as the sewing of a piece of tartan, given by to her by a friend, into her first kilted skirt has turned into a full time thriving business. " I never planned anything of this magnitude when I first started!", she began. Olive MacCaskill Bell, long active in the Tartan Educational Cultural Association (TECA), encouraged her to get started in a business that few attempt to start in this unique trade. Olive then introduced her to Mae Livermore, the Stone Mountain, Georgia kiltmaker. Mae, originally from Culloden Moor, Scotland, was a great help in the beginning, being herself self-taught in the trade.

Kathy began to order so much tartan from the mills in Scotland that she caught the attention of Master Kiltmaker Robert McBain of the Keith Kilt School. McBain sent an invitation to her to attend the kilt school, in the mill town of Keith, Scotland, the only school for kiltmaking in the world. The master kiltmaker was the former kiltmaker for the Scottish Regiment the Gordon Highlanders, and the only certified teacher in the world qualified to train for the Scottish Vocation Educational Council (SCOTVEC) award. She has become the first American to attend the school and the first fully certified kiltmaker in North America attaining the Scottish Qualifications Authority Award in Traditional handcraft and Kilt Making Skills. Returning to Scotland in May of 1999 she studied the unique crafting of the military box pleated kilt of the Scottish regiments and achieved an award in Traditional Handcraft Kilt Manufacturing. This professional development award paves the way towards becoming a Master Kiltmaker, which was almost a dying breed now in Scotland.

She now has a full-time international business operating from her shop in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in a community enriched with the many cultures of the Southwest. A member of The Keith Kiltmakers Guild (Now the Traditional Kiltmaker's Guild) of Scotland, she shares a unique trade with other kiltmakers who have graduated from the Keith Kilt School and will be able to use their quality label in her kilts. Kathy also employs two full-time graduates of the school and has developed a unique bond with the Scottish kiltmakers stating, "they have become some of my best friends! It's not an easy profession requiring endless patience. Each kilt requires about 3,000 hand stitches and around 16 hours of work. It's all down to mathematics as you have to calculate the measurements to fit the tartan for each individual!"