[MacBean]

I bought a used, lovat green, Harris Tweed, crail-style kilt jacket. Two buttons in front, one on each sleeve, rounded front bottom, double slits in back. It fits perfectly in shoulders, comes an inch past my wrist joint (slightly short), but seems it might be short in length. Looking at newer jackets on the web, crails and the like tend to be almost the same as sports jackets, but then Charlies are really short, so I wondered if this was some hybrid made by Alex Scott of Aberdeen in the past....or whether it should belong to someone smaller. It certainly wouldn't work with trousers, but kilts ride hider.

How do you tell how long it should be - particularly what to look for that it should not do?

[McMurdo]

The jacket should come down to the fell of the kilt. Like so:

[Galician]

It pays to listen to McMurdo. and, btw,

[paulhenry]

The jacket length really is up to you, usually they are a bit shorter, but yes, more modern jacket might be longer. It is very interesting looking at old photographs, many of those jackets pictured are "normal" sports jackets.
The reason for a shorter back is that it allows the kilt to move to the best, and the rounded front to accommodate the sporran.
Kilt wearing is not an exact science, and sometimes it has more to do with the confidence of the wearer.
As you will read on here, "Traditional kilt wearing" can be fairly creative, with sometimes a interesting mix of fabrics or colours or textures.
It sounds a nice jacket, and if you have a chance please post a photo of it being modelled!!