Wearing the Kilt Pin

[Tobus]

It's true that the weight of a kilt pin can help the apron corner from flapping up every time the wind catches it. But only if you wear a heavy kilt pin, and wear it all the way down there at the corner. That seems to be the modern trend, but it's not necessarily where the tradition of wearing kilt pins came from. It's not about "modesty protection", since as others pointed out, the outer apron flipping up won't expose anything underneath except the inner apron. Pinning it through both layers will drastically restrict the movement of the kilt layers over each other when walking, sitting, etc.

Kilt pins were originally worn much higher up, and were intended as a closure item when putting on the kilt (for that reason they did go through both layers). Today we have straps and buckles for that, and the kilt pin is merely a vestigial decorative bauble. It needn't be pinned through anything but the outer apron.

Personally, I usually only wear a lightweight "blanket pin" type of kilt pin, and I wear it at least a third of the way up the apron. It's not there for weight or closure, it's merely decoration. Having the corner of my kilt apron flapping in the breeze isn't a big deal, and I consider it just part of wearing the kilt. I've never worried about any exposure on that side. It's usually when a big gust comes through and flares my pleats up in the back that I worry whether anyone caught a view of the full moon.