Kilt length OK?

**Tobus** · 9th August 12, 12:47 PM

Looks fine to me. That's about where a proper kilt should fall - somewhere around the top of the knee.

**TyGuy** · 9th August 12, 12:53 PM

Tobus, first let me say as a stalker here (reading posts without being a member) I have found your insights to be most helpful, so I really appreciate you taking the time to answer MY question.

Secondly, it looks like it's the top of the knee from my wife's view, but the kilt is actually a little higher, again probably 0.5"-1.0" from the top of my knee cap if you look directly from the side, not looking down. Is that height still ok?

Should I stop fretting about the length and just enjoy it as much as I did the first day that I wore it (in the pictures)?

**Tobus** · 9th August 12, 01:09 PM

Secondly, it looks like it's the top of the knee from my wife's view, but the kilt is actually a little higher, again probably 0.5"-1.0" from the top of my knee cap if you look directly from the side, not looking down. Is that height still ok?

Personally, I think it's fine. Keep in mind that everyone else is going to be seeing it from eye level too, not directly from the side.

The trend these days seems to be for folks to wear modern style (utility-style) kilts at the bottom of the knee. But I prefer to wear them as kilts should be worn, at the top of the knee or slightly above. A half inch to one inch above the top of the knee cap is perfectly fine. As a visual comparison, here's how I wear my Utilikilt:

**creagdhubh** · 9th August 12, 01:24 PM

Length looks good to me, mate.

Cheers,

**Geoff Withnell** · 9th August 12, 01:25 PM

Tobus is 100% correct. The height is fine. Especially if you are going to be moving/running a lot in the kilt. A too long kilt irritates the dickens out of the back of the knee!

**Tobus** · 9th August 12, 01:31 PM

Originally Posted by Geoff Withnell

Tobus is 100% correct. The height is fine. Especially if you are going to be moving/running a lot in the kilt. A too long kilt irritates the dickens out of the back of the knee!

Absolutely. Especially when it's a 'hard' material like duck cloth, and has a bottom stitched hem. And it's not just the backs of the knees that will get irritated. The fronts too. That inside edge of the hem will rub up and down on the kneecap as you walk. As much hiking as I do in my Utilikilt, I learned that lesson pretty quickly. It's not that it ever really becomes a painful show-stopper like a heel blister, but it's just annoying. So wearing a utility-style kilt high when doing a lot of walking or running is simply good sense. And when I say high, I mean high enough over the top of the knee where it's not an issue.

**TyGuy** · 9th August 12, 01:32 PM

Geoff - I already noticed that this one hits the back of my knees a little when I move quickly in it. It's not annoying, but I could TOTALLY see how that would be annoying in a longer one.

Ok, good, so it sounds like I don't look like I'm wearing my wife's mini-skirt. Thank you all. I was really afraid that I would have to have it remade, thus throwing away $200!

Any other comments are appreciated.

BTW - this kilt was made by Bilt Kilts, a division of Burnetts and Struth. Brandon there answered all of my questions and really did a great job helping me out. I can't speak highly enough of him.

**TyGuy** · 9th August 12, 01:38 PM

It might be that the kilt itself is fine, but that two things are making me worry.

1) people seem to wear kilts down to the bottom of their knee caps now - which I personally would find annoying as I like my shorts to hit about mid knee or higher

and

2) I might just be a little self-conscious as this is my first kilt. Normally I just do what I want, and I don't worry about what others think, but I am a bit nervous about all of this. Don't get me wrong, I am not a jerk or anything, but I don't really care to live my life always worried about what others think. Be kind to one another, follow the law, and then live how you want to live, and I'll live how I want to live. I've always kinda marched to a different drummer, which is funny, because I voluntarily joined the very regimented life of a military man for 8 years. Yeah, I'm a walking contradiction, walking in a kilt now!

**Mike_Oettle** · 9th August 12, 01:46 PM

TyGuy, maybe this is a woman thing. My wife is forever at me about the “ridiculous” length of my kilts.
Where she gets the idea from that a kilt must sit at the bottom of the knee is beyond me, but I am tired of the way she tells me they are too long when, in fact, they are the right length, although occasionally they slip down a bit – in other words, they are too long in appearance, but she seems to think they are then “right”.
Heaven knows when she will get a more balanced view of things, but perhaps it will be when she sees me in a proper Scottish “tank”.
Regards,
Mike

**TyGuy** · 9th August 12, 01:51 PM

My wife has been great about this quest of mine from the start. I have wanted to join the ranks of kilt wearers since high shcool, but we didn't know enough of our geneology to tell where we came from. Over the past few years my grandmother, mother, and I have worked to figure it out, and we discovered our Broun heritage. I am trying to get paperwork together to ask to join Clan Broun, and I hope that everything is in order there. As such, my wife knew that I wanted a kilt for a long time. She encourages me to enjoy wearing it, she figures most Americans wont' know the proper length protocols anyway. She's a Godsend.

Thank you all. Now I just need to get home and change back into it!