a shocking confession

[ForresterModern]

Alan,

Don't worry my friend, it is just another part of your own personal style.
Everyone has their own personal fashion and this flexibility in kilt length is just a part of yours....








Cheers

Jamie

Jamie

I am surprised that Alan simply chose to ignore you when you commented about his "style", especially in light of the rant he posted in another thread about how he does not have a "style" regardless of what anybody else thinks. Honestly aghast that he completely let that one go by without even a comment.

Alan, okay, 2 things if you include tartan flat caps. Maybe over the next few years we will actually grow to be even closer friends.

jeff

[Tartan Tess]

As a kilt maker for others, this is ALWAYS the hardest part. I want to deliver a finished kilt that they love and half the people don't even know what they want in lenght. They want me to tell them.
I will remind the kiltwearer with a bit of excess in the front, needs to remember that if during the day, the kilt slides down under their belly, like they wear their pants....it hikes it up in the back for others to notice, and it is not pretty.
Panache, was that a 3'' rise?

[Alan H]

Jamie

I am surprised that Alan simply chose to ignore you when you commented about his "style", especially in light of the rant he posted in another thread about how he does not have a "style" regardless of what anybody else thinks. Honestly aghast that he completely let that one go by without even a comment.

Alan, okay, 2 things if you include tartan flat caps. Maybe over the next few years we will actually grow to be even closer friends.

jeff

Ah Jeff, regarding Panache's post... Unbeknownst to all, somewhere tucked deep inside my sporran, I actually have a sense of humour.

Besides, I'll just sit on James and squash him for that, at the next Nor Cal Rabble get-together!

[ForresterModern]

Ah Jeff, regarding Panache's post... Unbeknownst to all, somewhere tucked deep inside my sporran, I actually have a sense of humour.

Besides, I'll just sit on James and squash him for that, at the next Nor Cal Rabble get-together!

Alan

I get the feeling I need to make some new friends in person for a change. I am going to be in San Francisco on business for most of a week in April or May, and would be pleased as punch if you and the NorCal rabble might be able to gather for a meet one night during the trip, if downtown SF(or anyplace within easy taxi range of downtown) is within the reach and desires of the group. You folks seem to have a very lively and, ummmm, let's call it congenial, group. Yeah that describes it I think. Let me know and I can work on more firm dates.

I feel our friendship growing by---well maybe not leaps and bounds, but growing in a clearly measurable fashion anyway.

jeff

[Alan H]

Alan

I get the feeling I need to make some new friends in person for a change. I am going to be in San Francisco on business for most of a week in April or May, and would be pleased as punch if you and the NorCal rabble might be able to gather for a meet one night during the trip, if downtown SF(or anyplace within easy taxi range of downtown) is within the reach and desires of the group. You folks seem to have a very lively and, ummmm, let's call it congenial, group. Yeah that describes it I think. Let me know and I can work on more firm dates.

I feel our friendship growing by---well maybe not leaps and bounds, but growing in a clearly measurable fashion anyway.

jeff

"FASHION"!!!!!!OH, I HATE that word!


You bet, come on out to the West Coast, Jeff. We have cookies! (and beer)

[CopperNGold]

Old kilts, new kilts, red kilts, blue kilts. I love it when the boys play nicely together an nobody needs a time out!

[mookien]

When acquiring my first kilt, or two, I agonized (well, not quite, but I was very concerned) about kilt length.

I have come to accept Matt's solution space - anywhere from 1" above the top of the knee to mid knee. Once you adopt that flexibility, length doesn't have to be quite as precise as you might at first believe.

So, I shoot for the "top of knee" and then I'm OK with anything + or - an inch from that, as Alan states, though his range of acceptability is a bit lower-on-the-leg than mine.

As I wear a kilt, I find that I have to adjust it from time to time, usually hiking it up a bit. I suspect that has to do with my affliction with Dunlap's disease.

[CMcG]

I try to stick to my Auntie's guideline: "show some knee there lad!"

[OC Richard]

I've been wearing kilts for over 35 years and when I look back at old photos I can see that I've always worn kilts the same way: just below the top of the kneecap, within a 1/2 inch of the same point over the years. (The exceptions have been times when I've worn band-issued kilts of the wrong length.)

And there's a certain height that feels right to me as well, so that if a kilt is too short or too long it starts to bother me (especially if too short). I'll put on the kilt so the bottom looks right, but then the top will be too high or too low.

For two years I wore a band-issued kilt that was six inches too big in the waist and two inches too short. It was a constant annoyance, and since the band didn't seem likely to have a kilt made for me I bought one myself. It's a joy to wear and I wear it all the time, not just for band use.

I just won't wear a kilt that's 24" in length... it looks ridiculous, like blue jeans down around my hips. So off-the-peg kilts (which are usually in that length) are off-limits to me.

The height of kilts at the waist is very difficult to track over the years, because nearly all photos and paintings have a jacket or waistcoat covering the top of the kilt.

Here's a modern Army kilt, worn by the Drum Major of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, showing military kilt height:



And though not very closeup, the pipe band of a Canadian regiment (The Calgary Highlanders I think) in shirtsleeves:



I don't have a single vintage photo in my collection showing a kilted civilian in shirtsleeves, nor is any to be seen in The Highlanders of Scotland.

[mookien]

I try to stick to my Auntie's guideline: "show some knee there lad!"

Kathy Lare made a kilt for me, and after I sent her a picture of me in the kilt, she told me "you're showing a bit too much knee there". So, she lengthened my next kilt a bit. I love them both.

Matt made one of his famous Kingussie's for me, and when we were discussing measurements, he told me that + or - 1/2" was pretty routine. I ordered: waist 42, length 22. After I got it, I laid it out on the bed and measured: waist 42 (from the base of the buckle tine to the belt's middle hole), length 22. Not too shabby!

Oh, and the kilt looks great. I will post a pic, when I get one.