Color Question

[DerekvG]

Since I could not see the bottom of the jacket in your photo, I assumed that the jacket was a kilt jacket. Is it a jacket cut for a kilt, or is it meant to be worn with slacks?.

Can you explain how a jacket cut for a kilt differs from another not cut for a kilt, and
can à blazer not cut for a kilt be worn on top of a kilt

[Steve Ashton]

A jacket cut for trousers will have the bottom of the jacket end just about the bottom of the buttocks. To hide the pucker from the trouser legs.

A jacket cut for a kilt will be cut shorter. About the crest of the buttocks. As we don't have trouser legs we don't want to hide the pleats.
A kilt jacket will also have a cut-away to go around the sporran.

[DerekvG]

A jacket cut for trousers will have the bottom of the jacket end just about the bottom of the buttocks. To hide the pucker from the trouser legs.

A jacket cut for a kilt will be cut shorter. About the crest of the buttocks> As we don't have trouser legs we don't want to hide the pleats.
A kilt jacket will also have a cut-away to go around the sporran.

I understand the cutting and the difference,
I used a pied de poule blazer on a casual kilt for a dinner dress code casual or blazer city dress

[Karl R]

Can you explain how a jacket cut for a kilt differs from another not cut for a kilt,

Kilts (with the exception of Utilikilts and some casual kilts) are worn much higher than normal pants are. Pants are worn a few inches below the navel, while kilts are worn slightly above the navel. Therefore, kilt jackets will be cut shorter than regular suit blazers, to match the higher waistline.

If you're looking at a photo of a jacket on a hanger, compare the length of the sleeve to the length of the body of the jacket. If the body hangs a few inches below the length of the sleeve, then it's a blazer meant to be worn with pants/slacks. If the body is cut off a few inches above the length of the sleeve, then it's a kilt jacket meant to be worn with kilts. (Certain jackets, like Prince Charlies, are cut even higher.)

can à blazer not cut for a kilt be worn on top of a kilt

It can, but it's going to look a little strange. For example, I found this article where the author (shown in the photo) is wearing a kilt with a blazer meant for pants. (His kilt is a more modern design by 21st Century Kilts with pockets.)

It looks a little strange. Not only is there a mismatch between the length of the jacket and the rise of the kilt, but the blazer is also meant to hang straight down, and the kilt underneath is meant to flare outward.

There will be some exceptions where blazers designed for pants will work with kilts. Decades ago (1950s and earlier) men often wore high-waisted pants. Some of the jackets from that era were cut higher, to match the higher waist of the pants. If you find one of those jackets/blazers, it probably will look fine with a kilt.

[Steve Ashton]

I am sorry but from the way you worded the question I assumed that you were asking about the cut of the jacket and not the pattern of the fabric that kilt is made from.

Pied de poule or houndstooth fabric is a very acceptable, the old school classic fabric for a kilt Jacket.

[Taskr]

Threads like these are some of my favorites here. First off, IMO, if you're wearing a kilt you already have some style and flare. Intuitively you gather up things that go with it and maybe start a discussion about colours or cut or style .. and some really get into it and others say they never really think about it - yet both camps and between - be they learned, spouse guided, trained or self-studied - look great! In the end, always some good insight and guidance.

Happy kilting

[DerekvG]

I am sorry but from the way you worded the question I assumed that you were asking about the cut of the jacket and not the pattern of the fabric that kilt is made from.

Pied de poule or houndstooth fabric is a very acceptable, the old school classic fabric for a kilt Jacket.

Actually I was talking about the cut, your answer was the correct and expected input, thank you , you were not mistaken, however your input about pied de poule fabric is very valued too.
I wasn'tttalking about the colour, but about the. Cut
In the picture with the blue jacket IMG_20190714_112203.jpg I think the jacket is not what is called a blazer on the continent but it looks to me like the jacket of a 2pc or 3pc suit
My pied de poule blazer IMG_20181029_125802.jpg is cut differently. There is about 3" or 4" between the cuff an the bottom seam. While in the blue jacket there is more then double
Although my blazer is not cut for a kilt specifically it fits more your description of such a cut then the blue jacket
Am I right in making that conclusion

[Tobus]

I'm posting this from my phone, so apologies if the image size is not ideal. But a kilt jacket generally has a body length shorter than the sleeves. If the body is longer than the sleeves and falls below the fell line of the kilt, it's really too long for wearing with the kilt. The proportions are just out of whack.

[OC Richard]

While it was common to see, in Victorian times, men wear the same jacket with their kilt as they would with their trousers, by the early 20th century it became de rigueur to wear a purpose-made kilt jacket with the kilt.

Part of the reason was that mid-to-late 19th century men's jackets were cut to have one button near the top buttoned, and the jacket hang open in a wide inverted V, so that the sporran wasn't covered by the jacket.

When men's jackets began being cut to hang straight down in front, the sporran would be covered, and purpose-made kilt jackets became universal.

Wearing an ordinary jacket with kilts, nowadays, simply looks out-of-place to people familiar with Highland Dress. If I didn't have a proper kilt jacket I would wear a waistcoat with my kilt, or go to the event in "Saxon" dress.

About creating co-ordinating colour palettes, in the old days men didn't have to put thought into that, due the quite limited number of options available from the big Highland Dress makers. (Yes the aristocracy could have bespoke clothing. I'm talking about mainstream Highland Dress.)

In Victorian times one only sees tweed Day Dress jackets and selfcoloured hose in greys and browns. Exceptions are rare. So you put on your family tartan kilt, and your grey or brown accessories, and off you go.

By the 1930s tweed Day Dress jackets are usually offered in Lovat blue and Lovat green with the occasional grey, brown, or fawn. I have one colour photo of gents gathered at a Scottish Highland Games in the 1950s and EVERY man is wearing Lovat blue or Lovat green.

Likewise "Day" hose and bonnets were offered in a quite limited range of colours: Lovat blue, Lovat green, fawn, soft blue, and not much else.

You can see that a gent could wear his family kilt and purchase any commercially available bonnet, jacket, and hose and would be nicely co-ordinated.

The range of colours in Highland Dress accessories seen today would have been unthinkable in the old days. In the old days the makers limited our choices to what co-ordinated; today it's up to us, the consumer, to make these choices.

As Donald C Stewart puts it:

"The brilliant dyes employed today were not available in earlier times, and our forebears were spared the shattering colour schemes now occasionally seen...Then, the utmost that could be achieved was not too much; now, it may easily be."

(He was writing of the colours chosen by the weavers for their tartans, but I feel this statement applies to accessories as well.)

Victorian Highland Dress: wearing an ordinary sack coat with the kilt. Due to the jacket's cut the sporran isn't covered.



Commercially available Highland Day Dress 1920s through 1960s: limited colour choices mean more or less co-ordinating outfits, here a dark blue bonnet, Lovat green jacket, and light blue hose



Note here browns in hose and jacket, and red flashes, though these colours do not occur in the kilt. There's no sense of matching colours, rather the more or less random choices co-ordinate. It seems that this man served in the Argylls.



Nowadays we have more choices!

[gsmacleod]

For the length, this is my longest kilt jacket;

IMG_20190627_1330576_2.jpg

As you can see, it falls about mid-sporran and although it doesn't show in the photo, the sleeve length is a few inches longer than the jacket hem. Basically the bottom of the jacket sits around the red line while the cuff length is around the yellow line.

Hope this helps,

Shane