Utility of the Great Kilt

[Jock Scot]

I normally, but not always, wear the kilt and a tie as a matter of course. Many-------although not as many as they used to------still do over here.

[kingandrew]

I have never worn the great kilt, so I cannot speak to its utility or lack thereof.

I can say that I find a modern traditional kilt to be quite practical for many purposes, although I would choose a different garment for horseback riding, clearing thorny brush, or messy industrial operations.

As a teacher, I wear a tie every day and do not find it to be impractical or a problem. It adds color and makes me appear respectable and professional to my students and supervisors. Like Jock, I wear a tie most of the time I wear a kilt.

As Father Bill noted, formal clothing need not be uncomfortable. It's key to get things in the correct size and wear them properly. I find most people who complain about ties "choking" them really need to invest in a shirt with a bigger collar. It's easy to loosen a tie, but your shirt collar can really constrict your neck if it's too small.

Andrew

[OC Richard]

I find a modern traditional kilt to be quite practical for many purposes, although I would choose a different garment for horseback riding...

It's hilarious to see Hollywood Highlanders wearing kilts to ride horses. AFAIK it was never done.

For one thing, pre-Proscription trews and kilts were more or less equally popular, trews being the obvious choice for horseback. In the Highland regiments Officers were mounted and wore tartan riding breeches. (It was the 19th century Celtic Revival that made kilts the end-all and be-all of Highland Dress.)

I wear a tie every day and do not find it to be impractical...I wear a tie most of the time I wear a kilt.

Same here, I have to wear a tie every day at work, and oftentimes on my days off I'm piping somewhere and it's more of the tie.

...people who complain about ties "choking" them really need to invest in a shirt with a bigger collar.

Exactly! Especially with pipers due to the neck swelling when they blow the pipes. Newbie pipers often buy shirts their normal neck size, experienced pipers know to get shirts a size or two bigger.

[DCampbell16B]

With some trepidation I throw my 2p into this discussion.

Before going into this, I were a kilt for particular occasions, not as a general rule. I wear it pretty TCHD, and I haven't had my belted plaid on for many years (read decades). I did find it comfortable.

I was into reenactments in my younger days. There were a few of us doing '45 period stuff (and someone had to represent the Argyll militia). I had (still have) a 6 yard medium weight belted plaid. Also bonnet, cut cloth hose, tartan coat and waistcoat. The tartan used for the hose, coat and waistcoat were probably 10oz.

Somewhere around the early '80s I decided to see just how well they worked for cold weather wear. I was thinking of the Cameron story of one of Lochiel's sons making a pillow of a snowball, and Lochiel kicking it away and making comma t's about the softness of the day's youth. So one night I went out in the middle of a field, wrapped the upper part around me, and laid myself down in 18 inches of snow. I tucked my calves up under the kilted part. I laid there for half an hour and was really pretty comfortable. Then I got up and went home to sleep in a perfectly good, real bed. I may have been young, but I wasn't stupid.

Don't try this at home.

[Pleater]

When and why the Scottish Highlanders began belting their cloak around their waist none can say, but it does leave the limbs less encumbered for climbing, working, fighting, etc.

Ah - you've never tried wearing a cloak in anything of a wind then - strangulation is one possibility, as is being blown into gorse or heather, and it is very tiring trying to hang onto it - plus it affords no protection at all if it is flying from your shoulders like superman's cape.

Anne the Pleater

[Father Bill]

Ah - you've never tried wearing a cloak in anything of a wind then - strangulation is one possibility, as is being blown into gorse or heather, and it is very tiring trying to hang onto it - plus it affords no protection at all if it is flying from your shoulders like superman's cape.

Anne the Pleater

Yup. Funeral cloaks do that for the clergy!

[Stoff]

Ah - you've never tried wearing a cloak in anything of a wind then - strangulation is one possibility, as is being blown into gorse or heather, and it is very tiring trying to hang onto it - plus it affords no protection at all if it is flying from your shoulders like superman's cape.

Anne the Pleater

The secret to prevent this fairly common problem are cavalry cords. These are cords that wrap over the shoulders and under the arms, or cross over the chest and under the arms, and tie behind the back. At least that is how my horseman's cloak works. The only thing that the neck band/tie does is hold the cloak closed.

Stoff

[OC Richard]

Yes that makes my point.

The original brat or mantle, worn over the shoulders like a cloak in Ireland, appears to have been adapted by the Highlanders by securing around the waist with a belt, and attaching one corner to one shoulder.

Thus the cloak is more secured from flapping about in the wind and the limbs are freer for hiking and other activities.

[StL303]

Hopefully I didn't accidentally dig up a years-old thread here, but someone was asking for actual examples of the "alleged utility" of the great kilt.. and I can't believe I didn't see Fandabi Dozi's YouTube channel mentioned.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnn...FG6Bcir8ootwRQ

He has many videos on the wearing of the belted plaid and actually testing it's use in the outdoors and camping.

[tripleblessed]

A distant cousin is someone who has and wears more great kilts than most have kilts. He wears them frequently, and for all sorts of occasions, i.e., grocery store. Having worn
them so much and for so long, he finds them quite comfortable and useful. He has remarked more than once that the swags about the waist make great pockets. With them, he
wears cut cloth hose he made, sporran he made, and buffalo hide cuarans he made. Those (shoes) he often wears with jeans and t-shirts. He put vibram soles on them, and they've
held up for years. A couple of weeks after the Stone Mountain Games each year there is a powwow on the same grounds, and we are both kilted there; we have (different) grandmothers
who were native women who married Scots traders, and the kilt at the powwow is the combining of remembrance. Weather is unpredictable, and a comfortable sunny afternoon will
without warning become a chilly, breezy evening. The great kilt adjusts quickly to meet the need, while others scramble a mile or more to get to the parking lot for a jacket. I can
hang down to about freezing in kilt w/ wool hose even in t-shirt and be OK, but he's actually warm.

Please note: not my experience; his. I can provide visual confirmation, as can others on the forum who have seen him in action. Often with a dirk at his hip.

P.S. All right, I'll grant that while our whole family is a little odd, the two of us somewhat redefine the term odd. But he does find them comfortable.