How NOT to wear a kilt

[User]

I totally agree. From a practical perspective, it would make far more sense to put pleats in front.

Unfortunately tradition was done the other way

I assume it's because the tailored kilt descended from the great kilt, and it would be impractical to have pleats in front on a great kilt. Also, as yardage increases pleats in front make less sense. I suspect most people wearing a kilt backward are doing so with a box pleated or low yardage kilt.

[Pleater]

Prior to taking an interest in kilts, most of my experience was with Japanese clothing. The hakama can be pleated several ways, but if it's only pleated on one half, then the pleats go in the front. This allows unrestricted leg and knee movement, and you don't mess up the pleats by sitting on them.

Pleats go in the front:


Not the back:


I don't think pleats in the front/back is intuitive. I think it's something that must be taught. If I didn't know better, I probably would have guessed pleats go in the front, because objectively speaking, sitting on pleats isn't ideal.

I think that there are pleats centre back, like two halves of the reverse Kingussie box pleat.
I wear Thai wrapped trousers and when I lost weight I just put in pleats to make them fit again, and so ended up with something close to a hakama

Anne the Pleater

[OC Richard]

I assume it's because the tailored kilt descended from the great kilt

Exactly so.

The pleated portion of the breacan-an-feileadh can only be as wide as the width your backside can hold in place when you lay on it.

So sewing a kilt with pleats in back replicates the appearance that people were accustomed to.

When the army switched from the breacan-an-feileadh to the little kilt for Full Dress they also issued a plaid which was belted around the waist and tied to the left shoulder with a ribbon to completely replicate the appearance of the breacan-an-feileadh.

On the other hand there are 18th century portraits of men in early little kilts which are pleated all around, so it's an accident of history, I suppose, that that didn't win out in the end.

Another accident of history, perhaps, is why sporrans didn't continue to be worn attached to the waistbelt as they originally were, but acquired their own dedicated narrow belt.

[Brian Rose]

Last year at the San Diego Games, I saw someone with his kilt backwards. I went up and quietly let him know that the pleats go in the back and he said “oh yeah!” and turned the kilt around.

Why people think they go in front (or how they can reasonably put a kilt on with pleats to the front) is beyond me.

I had the same issue yesterday at a small local Celtic Festival. I walked up and said “ I hate to be ‘that guy’ but your kilt is on backwards.” He quickly rotated it and thanked me. Said it was his first time. Then a quick lesson on how a kilt is worn higher than blue jeans.

[User]

I had the same issue yesterday at a small local Celtic Festival. I walked up and said “ I hate to be ‘that guy’ but your kilt is on backwards.” He quickly rotated it and thanked me. Said it was his first time. Then a quick lesson on how a kilt is worn higher than blue jeans.

My rule of thumb at festivals is, if it's something they can fix on the spot (backward, steeking still in, etc) let them know. Otherwise, I don't approach people just to point out flaws.

[Troglodyte]

It is surprising where these kilting errors occur.

At the Aboyne Highland Games on Deeside, Scotland, last weekend, I witnessed the correcting of a curious faux-pas.

At a trade stand, a young visitor had his kilt on sideways! That is, aprons to one aide, pleats to the other - with the left-side buckle at the front.

An ex-Jock was with me, and he lost no time in providing gentle and calm advice on how improvements could be made. In his defence, the young man said it was the first time he had worn the kilt (having only just bought it) and had fastened the buckle as he would a normal belt, going right-to-left. Position of the flat aprons and pleats had been given no thought at all, and none of those with him had noticed the twisted kilt either.

What is baffling is that Aboyne is a red-letter event and the number of kilties competing in piping and dancing, the bands and officials, and spectators who are kilted corretly and for the most part very traditionally, all provide good role models to follow for novice kilties.

It beats me how someone could get the kilt on backwards and not realise. The 'I'm new to it' excuse is reasonable enough with the finer details of Highland dress, but kilt on backwards (or sideways) seems as illogical as jeans on backwards, or a suit jacket on backwards for the same reason.

Yet we see it more often than we should...

[OC Richard]

...the singularly AMERICAN tune that is so beautiful on the Pipes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKQU...&start_radio=1

Beautifully sung, and I do like that the pipers took it at a more stately tempo than is usually heard.

The standard Hymnal version is generally taken at around 100 beats per minute, which is pretty much the default tempo for Hymns in general (except the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, who do everything slow).

Right on that the tune we now use for the set of words Amazing Grace is, as far as we know, purely American. It first appears in The Virginia Harmony, 1831, where it's used for a different Hymn.

In The Southern Harmony, 1847, the tune is for the first time associated with the set of words Amazing Grace.

The standard Hymnal version of the tune is somewhat different than the way it was arranged for the bagpipe in its bagpipe debut on the 1972 album Farewell to the Greys which is still my favourite bagpipe version.

The brass chords are understated and perfect, and there's a lovely French Horn descant (which starts at 1:38)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drti...&start_radio=1

Now there is no tune "Amazing Grace", which is an utterly tuneless set of words.

The tune heard above is called NEW BRITAIN in The Southern Harmony.

In 19th century New England books the most common tune used for Amazing Grace was FIDUCIA, which I much prefer.

(In traditional Hymnody tune-titles are written in all capital letters.)

The traditional New England Amazing Grace sung to the tune FIDUCIA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmFK...&start_radio=1

And here's Amazing Grace sung to the old Hymn-tune KINGSFOLD https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCBr...&start_radio=1

[OC Richard]

Back to the topic How Not To Wear A Kilt yes at every Games people are to be seen wearing a kilt backwards.

Or proudly wearing their beautiful new kilt with the basting stitches still in place!

(Spotted at a Games last year. I didn't have the heart to tell the guy.)



And drummers (why is it always the drummers?) wearing their kilts super low



Worse, because it can't be fixed by simply hiking your kilt up, are all the Americans (why is it always the Americans?) who insist or ordering their kilts far too short. They're growed-up-men ordering kilt lengths that in the old days would only be for Youths.



The answer, of course, is to order your jacket with a super-long waistcoat

[jsrnephdoc]

Beautifully sung, and I do like that the pipers took it at a more stately tempo than is usually heard.

The standard Hymnal version is generally taken at around 100 beats per minute, which is pretty much the default tempo for Hymns in general (except the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, who do everything slow).

Right on that the tune we now use for the set of words Amazing Grace is, as far as we know, purely American. It first appears in The Virginia Harmony, 1831, where it's used for a different Hymn.

In The Southern Harmony, 1847, the tune is for the first time associated with the set of words Amazing Grace.

The standard Hymnal version of the tune is somewhat different than the way it was arranged for the bagpipe in its bagpipe debut on the 1972 album Farewell to the Greys which is still my favourite bagpipe version.

The brass chords are understated and perfect, and there's a lovely French Horn descant (which starts at 1:38)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drti...&start_radio=1

Now there is no tune "Amazing Grace", which is an utterly tuneless set of words.

The tune heard above is called NEW BRITAIN in The Southern Harmony.

Thanks for the history lesson. Unfortunately, at 78, I'll probably forget it quickly. However, with BOTH of my parents' funeral Requiems punctuated by Amazing Grace on the pipes, the bluegrass and banjo setting just doesn't do it for me. The Berlin Tattoo YouTube version is everywhere, of course, and it brings me to tears even 2 and 3 decades after my dad's AND my mom's deaths. The tune matches the text like almost nothing else (the other summits being soprano solos in the final movement of Mahler's gigantic 2nd and 8th symphonies). AND, for lovers of the pipes, there's NO better demonstration of how a brass band can add simply unsurpassable harmony to tune AND text, with a lone or gigantic assembly of pipers carrying the melody.

And, as for the "kilt on backwards" faux pas, my mom went to her grave with her kilt EXACTLY mis aligned like that, and I suspect NO ONE who attended her wake other than my sister recognized the sartorial sin.

[CBH]

The guy with the basting thread still in place also has a kilt that is WAY too long. Or is it that it was made to be worn higher (traditionally) and he's just wearing it on his pants waist ?

My wool kilts were both ordered to be worn on the pants waist - low. Both shops agreed that it was OK, and they were well versed in making them this way. Yet in both cases, the fell is still 4 - 6", which of course, is the problem. That causes the pleats to open far below the point where your butt starts and you need the extra room. So that makes it tight and not as comfy or easy to move around in as it should be. And because the length is short, wearing it higher is not an option either.

Is there a construction reason the fell can't be around 1 1/2 to 2" ?