Pre-Buckle Kilts?

[OC Richard]

Well into the 20th century some military kilts lacked buckles, but were pinned.

I don't know when straps and buckles were introduced, but it seems that at least in the first half of the 19th century pinning kilts was standard.

The trouble is that vintage photos of soldiers showing the top of the kilt are very rare, due to soldiers nearly always wearing jackets.

Here is one, a Gordon Highlander. You can see how tall a full-width kilt is on a shorter man (all army kilts were full width regardless of the wearer's height). You can see that there's no buckle on the wearer's left where one might expect it. This doesn't necessarily mean that there aren't buckles on the other side, because many old kilts don't have any fastening for the inner apron though they have buckles for the outer apron.



Also note that the straps and buckles on traditional Scottish military kilts are quite different than the straps and buckles used on 20th century civilian kilts. The military buckles are stamped out of sheet steel, feel small and flimsy, have two prongs, and are painted black. They're held to the kilt with strange black-coated canvas stuff.

Here's a Cameron Highlanders kilt well showing the distinctive military buckles, and a number of other military attributes (high rise, grass-green binding, lack of fringe, and the box pleats which appeared on 3 of the 5 old kilted regiments).