How NOT to wear a 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

[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...

[kiltedsawyer]

I came across an ad, on a popular "social media" site, by someone offering a kilt for sale, "only worn once" and had to share the photo used ( :

The guy on the far right clearly has the kilt on backwards. But the guy on the far left has two straps on the right side, but buckled in reverse. Is this a skirt?

Cheers,

David

[jsrnephdoc]

The guy on the far right clearly has the kilt on backwards. But the guy on the far left has two straps on the right side, but buckled in reverse. Is this a skirt?

Cheers,

David

WAY back when I was in college, I made my first venture into wearing the family colors. Shortly after arrival for my freshman year, I discovered that my dorm advisor played the Pipes (AMAZINGLY well). He was the Pipe Major for the College's band, so 2 or 3 of us minnows came under his wing and acquired practice chanters. My 5 years younger sister had a ladies kilt in the almost impossibly garish red Robertson modern dress tartan, which I borrowed from her and wore whenever the band performed over the next four years. I never got beyond learning Scotland the Brave, The Rowan Tree, and one other march whose name I can't remember (no, it was NOT my favorite, The Black Bear); to keep the bag inflated, I had to plug the drones with wine corks. Two summers ago and more than 50 years later, sitting in the stands at the Edinburgh Royal Military Tattoo, my sister "reminded" me that I'd never returned that kilt! Back when I wore it, I had NO practical understanding of the differences between kilts and kilted skirts, but no one else complained when I wore it.

My mom, a small, much loved, but fierce disciplinarian high school English Teacher, was buried in her favorite teaching uniform (Robertson Red Waistcoat, silk blouse, and kilt). My sister gathered the attire and delivered it to the undertaker, but when we all arrived for the wake, Margie was horrified to discover that he'd dressed Mom with the pleats IN FRONT!

Of course, her requiem Eucharist was highlighted by a piper celebrating her life with the singularly AMERICAN tune that is so beautiful on the Pipes: (no, this is not a link to that performance, but it brings tears to my eyes every time I watch and listen:

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

It makes no difference whether you're an atheist, flat-earther who's certain the universe was created in six days, or anywhere in between, if you've ever loved MUSIC, you'll be visiting this URL many, many times with tears in your own eyes.

[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

[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" ?

[User]

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

I might as well confess, the first time I wore a kilt, I didn't see the basting stitches. It wasn't until I was undressing that night that I noticed them. I remember thinking "What are those? They don't look like they should be there. Oh dear."