women in kilts

[S.S.Muldoon]

I've never really noticed, and I'm surfing up what pics I can find, do the kilts on female pipers always open on the right (male side)? Has anybody here ever seen, or do any of our female members have kilts expressly made for females? I know this is rather a semantic argument, since most of us think of kilts as an expressly male garment...however does the gender of the wearer necessarily change the gender of the garment? For instance: RuPaul-technically male, wearing a sequined gown...you wouldn't say that its a male sequined gown, you'd say he's a transvestite...but you wouldn't say that a female piper in band uniform is practicing a form of transvestitism. Just a thought excersise...thoughts? Comments? Beuhler?...Beuhler?

[Bugbear]

I've never really noticed, and I'm surfing up what pics I can find, do the kilts on female pipers always open on the right (male side)? Has anybody here ever seen, or do any of our female members have kilts expressly made for females? I know this is rather a semantic argument, since most of us think of kilts as an expressly male garment... ...

A band member would most likely be wearing a traditional or near traditional kilt, so it would be fitted and tailored to the proper measurements of the person. wearing it: hopefully at least. I have seen posts saying that they do open to the right and so on. Ask Barb T. for the best answer.
Um, ...

[Mr. Woolery]

OH NO! WHAT NEXT?

Women in kilts? Next thing you know, they'll be wearing trousers! Augh!

Oh, wait.

For what it is worth, if you want a kilt, I suggest wearing one that is cut to a woman's figure and with feminine accessories. I saw a woman at a highland games this past summer and wish I had taken a picture. Oh, man. She was dressed in what looked like a pipe-band uniform designed for a music video. Red jacket with gold trim, horsehair sporran, Royal Stewart kilt, hose, everything. She really looked wrong. I mean really wrong. It was a man's outfit and she looked like she was cross-dressing without actually having the garments cut for her. Like, my eyes, man.

Go ahead. But I think a longer skirt, kilted or not, tends to look more feminine than a kilt does. Maybe see if you could have a kilt made to reach your calf? That would be a really lovely look on a lady. Or maybe it is just me.

Remember that it is just a garment. Not a magical talisman or "boys only" sign, any more than jeans are only for men (or only for women). BUT a man's jeans seldom fit a woman well and always seem to look improperly cut on her. A man's kilt similarly won't fit most women well. So, whatever you wear, make a point of dressing well. After all, with a garment as spendy as a kilt, you want to make sure you will enjoy wearing it, right?

-Patrick

[Sir Robert]

Okay by me, I even got a youth kilt for her, all the eye sees is a plaid skirt. I had to help pull the baisting stiches out and show her how to buckle it.

While we are on the subject there are women's kilts, they are backwards from men's on the apron (two buckles on the wearer's left). I have also seen women's plaid skirts the wrong way too. Male wearers are pretty much stuck with knee leignth. females do have 10,000 more choices. Me if I did not have to wear a knee top kilt (because I'm a boy) then I would wear a much longer one.

[PiobBear]

Is it offensive for women to wear a mans kilt? I've never worn one and I do like what they have for women but the mens kilts are really cool. I mean you have all that great stuff to go with it and the women don't. Please understand I mean no disrespect I ask so I never offend the scottish custom.I really love kilts and hope to get my husband in one soon.

In my opinion it's no more offensive than a woman wearing trousers. I should think that society has evolved beyond that now.

[cessna152towser]

Ladies in pipe bands wearing proper ladies kilts, ie made to fit a lady's waist/hip ratio and with the fringe and kilt pin to their left can look quite smart and attractive. I have seen ladies wearing kilts which are fringed to the right and are obviously men's kilts and to me they can sometimes appear rather kinky, just as I'd still be surprised to see a man wearing a floral print dress which had been designed to be worn by a lady. Each to their own though and its not for me to criticise other people's clothing choice.
Some ladies can succeed in looking attractive and ladylike in a man's kilt, for example:-

[Pleater]

The left/right closure thing is just cultural - all kimono close left side over right (unless you are dressing a corpse, when right over left is correct).

The zippers of casual jackets made for the US market are made with the traveller on the other side to those made for the European market - my son bought one when visiting his future father in law and at first thought it was a mistake. He always fumbles the closing of it.

At my age and weight my days of wearing a miniskirt are long past.

I started to wear kilts as I was losing weight and wanted to have a garment that would accomodate the gradual decrease in circumference. I settled on a kilt after shrinking out of two sizes of drawstring trousers.

I find that making them with a slightly narrow apron is ideal. In cold weather the layers of pleats keep my hip joints warm and that is important. I am not restricted either moving around in the house or outside on the heathland, and as I make a lot of them from cheap or recycled material it is not a disaster if I rip one beyond repair.

The choice of garments for overweight women is very limited if restricted to what is available in the shops. The usual options have been colourful tents called smocks, which are made of thin material which tends to develop static, so they actually cling unkindly to the body and restrict movement, or there are the Crimpeline tubes, usually navy blue, with an elbow or 3/4 length sleeve and a little naff decoration in white around the neck.

For female members of pipe bands it would be wrong for them to have the fastenings reversed, as they are wearing a uniform.

Having worn military surplus for a long time the garments made during WWII and in the decade after, where the cut and the item was adapted from a man's uniform, I found the fastenings were not reversed even if intended for female personnel. It was perhaps because the reversing was attributed to a woman not dressing herself and those doing the requisitioning reasoned that in the services a woman would be dressing herself and therefore the reversal was not proper to the design.

I have worn a kilt with a useful pouch, on my left hip. That is because I would wear a dirk on my right hip. Not that I do, it is sort of a case that I might. I clip my phone or i-thingy just to the right of my belt buckle so as to have room for if I ever put on a dirk.

Or an axe.

I maintain that the kilt is a very manly garment - particularly when dressed up and that there is an element of cross dressing in my wearing one, particularly with a wide black belt and a large shiny chrome buckle.

I would never wear one with a lacy top, though, nor a black jacket - just not right.

Dungarees are very manly too.

I wore kilts as a child - with a kilt pin, and they closed on the right - my mother always pinned it too low and I still remember how it hit my knee when I ran.

Of course there was a time when most garments were maily differentiated male or female by the length they were belted or pinned up to, and there was an element of social standing there too. A high class male or female would have longer garments than a lower class one, plus there were variations due to age, the season, time of day and necessity.

Anne the Pleater

[Cynthia]

I have a SWK Thrifty kilt to hold me over until I can afford the kilted skirts I want to get eventually. I wear it lower on my hips, which also makes it hit about low knee. The fell isn't sewn down, and the only kilt-like accessory I wear with it is a ladies round pin/brooch that works nicely as a kilt pin.

I will end up with some better kilts (I'm hoping to try the SWK Standard -- I want to keep it affordable), but that's mainly because I will eventually be competing in the Highland Games and the Thrifty doesn't fit very well. I have an hourglass figure... the Thrifty tends to pop up and shift around on me instead of staying on my hips and that drives me absolutely batty, but it's not worth it right now to bother getting it fitted better.

I hand knitted some garter ties for when I wear a kilt for the Games and will eventually get some kilt hose, but that will be it for accessories (and the kilt pin will not be on that kilt). Eventually, if I end up taking piping lessons, get decent enough and join a pipe band, I'll wear a kilt and accessories as a uniform, but for me personally I don't see myself wearing much more outside of that type of situation. I considered wearing a balmoral so I could wear my XMTS Clan badge, but I might try to find other ways to wear it. I'm still hoping to convince my husband to wear a balmoral so he can wear it (he hates hats and isn't too fond of glengarries or balmorals either).

There was a brief time I was a little jealous, but as long as I have something of my own (even if I don't get to do a full-blown uniform with a pipe band someday) actually I'm happy getting the kilt and accessories for my husband. It's *almost* the same. I enjoy caring for them and getting them out and putting them away for him, and I really enjoy seeing them on him. I even received some birthday cash and contemplated buying him kilt accessories with my birthday money (I didn't, but I came really close a few times).

So, except for using the Thrifty until I get better fitted kilted skirts or a situation where it's a uniform (I guess you can say the Highland Games would be a uniform of sorts), I would prefer to keep it to the ladies wear for myself if only for a better fit.

There will always be people who don't agree or dislike something regardless of what you do. Life is too short to worry about it that much and you're never going to please everyone all of the time anyway.

[arrg-isle]

No new position on this, or any big revelation, just a little more weight: my two best friends, both women, attended Highland games with me for about 4 years before deciding that they wanted kilts (one of them is Scottish {a Gordon, no less}, the other is Quebecois); initially, they wound up purchasing a Utilikilt in black denim, and an Amerikilt in sienna canvas (I kidded the latter that she'd joined up with Clan Carhartt) and wore them to our next half-dozen Games.
Two years later, they decided they wanted to go old school, so I referred them to my kiltmaker. He discussed the subject with them on the phone, helped them determine that they did indeed want 100% traditional, wool day kilts, assisted them in choosing tartans, then visited them to take appropriate measurements.
A couple months later, there they were, two very differently shaped women, both looking stunning in their new kilts (which wear, fasten & "operate" just like mine do), which they have since decided to accoutrement with kilt hose, belted sgians & small RobRoy type sporrans.
Now, they not only were those kilts to the Games & Festivals they attend, but have actually gotten motivated to help out at Clan tents, and march in the Clan pararde, calling out their war-cries with great enthusiam.
You know what? I just realized that this story's got an entirely happy ending!
Yayyyy!

[Livingston]

I'd say go for it. Just make sure you don't over accessorize. Having a sporran just doesn't look right to me.