History: Strap and Buckle Closures?

[Bugbear]

When did strap and buckle closures come into use?
Aside from the belt, what other ways of securing the kilt have been historically used?
Thank you.

[The Wizard of BC]

Ted,

I've been reading through you last few threads and one thought keeps popping into my mind.

You are probably thinking way to hard on this. The development of the kilt has been as varied as there have been kilt makers. I don't think you can put a date on when things happened or how a particular kilt was made.

I've seen kilts fastened with just about every type of fastening imaginable. I've seen kilts with no attached fasteners at all. They were pinned on with the large horse blanket pins. The ones we think of today as diaper style kilt pins. These were large, 5" to 6" long. Each time the kilt was put on it was pinned. This way one kilt could fit a wide range of wearers. This was often used in some military units that kept a few kilts in their stores and would issue as needed.

I've seen kilt with ties. Some ties were ribbon and some leather. Some small or narrow and some wide enough to be called straps.

I've seen buttons, hooks and eyes. Sometimes there is one type of fastener on the underapron and another fastener on the outer apron where it would show.

And I've seen all manner of leather straps with buckles. Some like want we use today and some that use one long strap fastened to the under apron only. The strap went around the back like a belt and buckled to a buckle mounted on the outer apron.

So the sort answer to your question is that there have been as many ways to fasten a kilt as there have been kilt makers. Each maker tries to find their own way of setting their kilts apart and special from another maker.
Each shop would have their special way of doing things. This would apply to the stabilizer & interfacing, the fasteners, the taper of aprons etc.

I would venture to say that what we today call "The Traditional Way" only came about fairly recently. With the production of kilts on a scale any larger than a small one or two person shop would require some form of standardization. The master or owner of the shop would set the standard so all the kilts from that shop would be the same.
Change within a shop would happen but would be slow or one change at a time to make things easier or to save some time or money.
The military, Pipe bands, and the Rental companies would have had a large part of this standardization. At one time there were four formal and many informal kilt schools. Each made and taught a different way of making a kilt. The Keith School taught a very different way than that which was taught at Thomas Gordon's where Elsie Stuehmeyer learned the trade.

Asking which is the best or the 'correct' way is about akin to asking which breed of dog or which brand of Scotch is 'correct'.

Trying to set or put a date on when a change happened is even harder.

[figheadair]

I agree with Steve about reading too much into this and in effect trying to codify a process.

Looking through my pre-1860 photos of old military and civilian kilts I can't find one with a strap and buckle. Generally they are closed with ribbon/tape ties or buttons. That doesn't mean that one might not find an example of a buckle being used by around the middle of the C19th but I suspect that they are later and that even when they did come in that there would have been a number of styles.

Just a thought but I wonder if their use coincides with the move to knife pleats and more cloth.

[figheadair]

I've seen kilts fastened with just about every type of fastening imaginable. I've seen kilts with no attached fasteners at all. They were pinned on with the large horse blanket pins. The ones we think of today as diaper style kilt pins. These were large, 5" to 6" long. Each time the kilt was put on it was pinned. This way one kilt could fit a wide range of wearers. This was often used in some military units that kept a few kilts in their stores and would issue as needed.

I remember Bill Clements, late PM of the Atholl Highlanders and a former BW soldier during the war (WWII) telling me that at that time the BW used to fasten their kilts with a 6" long steel pin that hard to be 'positioned' just right so that one could do all that was required without skewering one's crown jewels .

[M. A. C. Newsome]

The kilts of the NY Cameron Highlanders in the 1860s were made with a strap and buckle, but the strap was made from the tartan cloth, not leather. Granted these were made by New York City dress makers, not Scottish kilt makers! No doubt there was a fair bit of innovation on their part. However, the kilts they made just may represent the earliest example of a strap and buckle configuration. I am personally not aware of any Scottish-made kilts predating these which use straps and buckles.

[O'Searcaigh]

Thank you for this thread. I have made four kilts -- one wool "dress kilt" on which I put a strap and buckle attaching the front apron to the body at the bottom of the fell on the right (the only one seen on any kilt if one wears a belt) and none on the others which are my "everyday" work kilts. I just use a large safety pin to attach them at the waist as I can then adjust them to whatever comfort level my waist happens to be that day. I wear a belt over that and don't bother putting in the two top straps and buckles. I did this because I am lazy and it worked best for comfort in adjusting to my waist. Also, it is VERY easy to take such a kilt off. Just undo the belt, take off the safety pin and that's it, roll it up lay it out nicely and its ready to go the next day. It is so nice to see that I'm not doing anything necessarily "unorthodox" kiltly speaking.

[Bugbear]

Thank you.

I apologize for the way this has come across. This and my other thread in this section on the box to knife pleats were an attempt to get a better understanding of the timelines and history involved with the kilt. It's been mixed up in my mind for a while, and I am very limited in my sources other than what is posted here on the forum. If I don't have that strait in my mind, or sources to point to, it's difficult to dismiss some of the mythical assertions coming from all directions that are sometimes made about the kilt.

[Jaggy thistle]

My first kilt was an ex army kilt which was made in 1938 it had no straps and was fastened with a large safety pin however I got my mother to put a strap on the outer apron the inner apron needed nothing as the inside of the outer apron was a kind of flannel cloth which acted as a sort of velcro !

[OC Richard]

I have read that late 18th century and early 19th century military kilts were fastened with blanket pins at the waist, and that surviving early military kilts show holes and wear in that area for that reason.

[Bugbear]

I think I have a little better idea of the history now. I miss a lot that is shown in the historical pictures posted on the forum.

I'm kind of posting this link for my own reference, but Matt Newsome gives some of the history/timeline of the feilidh-beag in this article, "Is the Kilt English?"
http://www.albanach.org/kilt_english.html