Kilts and overcoats

**andyfg** · 13th January 08, 04:32 PM

There have been a number of threads about what to wear with the kilt in the winter. Well, it gets quite cold here in upstate NY and until this year I always tried to wear a shortish coat. Mostly this was because a shorter coat shows off the kilt and pleats.

Then I read a few of the threads about Inverness Capes. Very nice, but very expensive in tweed. Then there was Ron's piece about Army great coats and I saw a pic in one of Robertson's threads with one of the chaps wearing a regular overcoat. It looked OK and I thought I might give it a go!

So, this cold season I have taken to wearing my Harris Tweed overcoat with my kilts on the cold days. I have to say it has been just about perfect. You can imagine the warmth of both wool kilt and wool overcoat. Of course, it doesn't allow for the swing of the pleats and all, but when it's below freezing just right. Not quite an Inverness, but the same warmth. So here's a pic. Kilt, just about visible is Fitzgerald ancient.

Stay warm!

**Chef** · 13th January 08, 08:17 PM

I wore my London Fog overcoat one time; my wife said I looked like a flasher. I haven't worn a regular overcoat with my kilt since.

**Marshal Moroni** · 13th January 08, 08:34 PM

Here in CA I really don't have this issue, but warm is as warm does + you're still kilted which is way cool no matter what the weather!

Cheers,

**Kiltman** · 13th January 08, 09:30 PM

I too wear a Harris Tweed overcoat with my kilts. Seems like a good contemporary solution. In Eastern Washington it get cold too. Ithaca I know gets really cold. We have property in Keene Valley and our daughter and son-in-law did graduate work at Cornell.

**Sean_the_Kilted** · 14th January 08, 02:12 AM

The coat looks great. Just make sure you can see your kilt under or through your coat, otherwise you will have a "Flasher" look about you.

GG · 14th January 08, 02:28 AM

Originally Posted by Chef

I wore my London Fog overcoat one time; my wife said I looked like a flasher.

I have been worrying about the flasher aspect myself; however I’m sure that an Inverness coat is completely unknown to my countrymen, and had they seen one they shouldn’t know that it is to be worn with a kilt. Accordingly any coat could do as well (or bad).
My wife and I have lately been walking around in the neighborhood. She suggested that I’d wear a coat over my kilt, and so I did. But I prefer it to be unbuttoned thereby eliminating any flasher suspicion.

Greg

www.dress2kilt.eu

GG · 14th January 08, 02:34 AM

I think you look good in your harris tweed coat. I'm sometimes wearing an overcoat myself, like you may see elsewhere in this thread, but most of the time I do with a short windbreaker.

Greg

www.dress2kilt.eu

**Hamish** · 14th January 08, 04:42 AM

Andy, you look fine in your photo but, the problem with wearing a regular overcoat and a kilt is that it really only looks acceptable from the front - and with the coat left undone and open. From the back it might appear to everyone else that, as has been suggested, you are a flasher, or that you have forgotten to put your t------s on, - either way leaving yourself open to ribald comments. If an overcoat has to be left undone, I actually do not see much point in wearing it!

In all my 57+ years of kilt wearing here in the United Kingdom, I have never found it cold enough to wear anything other than a good, warm bomber jacket, maybe with a scarf and gloves, and I am now of an age when the blood has definitely started to thin!

Take care,
Ham.

**andyfg** · 14th January 08, 06:08 AM

Originally Posted by Hamish

In all my 57+ years of kilt wearing here in the United Kingdom, I have never found it cold enough to wear anything other than a good, warm bomber jacket, maybe with a scarf and gloves, and I am now of an age when the blood has definitely started to thin!

Ham.

Ham, as I said, the warm bomber jacket has been my usual winter wear. (I posted pics last year in the snow.) The tweed overcoat is a new experiment. It does get very cold here. The other day it never got higher than 8 degrees F (-14 C). Drastic measures needed at that temp! Not many people out walking (let alone potentially "flashing"!) Usually, when we walk the dogs we rarely see anyone. Walking is not as popular here in the USA as back in the UK.

Ham, what is your opinion of the Inverness, then? I'm assuming that from the back that coat too would have the same effect. (I always appreciate your style tips.)

**andyfg** · 14th January 08, 06:10 AM

Originally Posted by Kiltman

I too wear a Harris Tweed overcoat with my kilts. Seems like a good contemporary solution. In Eastern Washington it get cold too. Ithaca I know gets really cold. We have property in Keene Valley and our daughter and son-in-law did graduate work at Cornell.

We live at the edge of Cornell property. The picture is at the Cornell Plantations (where we often walk the dogs). I was a Visiting Scholar there for three years.