Royal Regiment of Scotland - Kilt Sizes (Current)

[MartinMU]

In the past 4 month I spent hours and days trying to find my way through the kilt jungle. First I aquired a kilt made by the "Scottish Higland Kilt" company for around 90 bucks. The full length was 24" and it does fit a waist from 34" (printed) to max 36". The fabric wasn't wool after all and knowing that the events attending will be around -5 degrees celsius and i will be outside for about 6-8hrs, i came to the conclusion that the fabric is not warm enough. I gave it at try with wind chill -8 for 30min and i was freezing.

As a solution I found the idea about a scottish regiment kilt. I already have regiment trews and logically the kilt must be the same good fabric.

I bought a new RRS Kilt off ebay for 160 bucks in sizes 176/88/104. A good match for my belly I was thinking. When it arrived, surprise surprise. The sizes wasn't really matching. the 88cm was probably rather an 86cm at its widest button hole and soon i noticed that the length was around 25" to 26". Thats when the research began.

Meanwhile I understand that the overall length of the regiment kilt is longer than the civilian regular kilt and that it is worn higher than the regular kilt. Obvious think case my RRS No1 Piper jacket was always giving a glimps on my t-shirt underneath when wearing the civilian "Scottish Highland kilt". Jacket hem and top of the kilt are just right at the belly button, but not overlaping.

I found a lot of valuable information here in this forum. Most of it kind of old, back from 2015. I thought to myself I wanna give some reference information for future buyers. All the information is applicable only for the current RRS Kilts. The older ones were sized differently.

It has to be noted that the indicated sizes of the waist is measured at the largest possible position at the outer belt hole. So it has to be understood that you can go down from 88cm to 85cm but never to 90cm. This as an example. The older regiment kilts you can find on ebay, "genuine" not pakstani repro. Are measured at the middle button. This gives you one inch more and one inch less. Another word of caution. Regiment kilts, if issued, not like mine, might have been trimmed for the person that is going to wear it. I strongly recommend to check the real measurements before buying it. For me retruns on ebay cost a fortune here in Switzerland. I learned my lesson.

Find the table attached below with the available sizes.
1st number: refers to the persons height in cm
2nd number: refers to the persons waist in cm
3rd number refers to the persons breech in cm
The lenght is the full length and fits above the belly button in order to overlap with the regiment piper jacket no1.

kilz_size.jpg

[OC Richard]

Thanks for that! It should be a sticky, due to how often members here window-shop military kilts, and sometimes purchase them.

I do wonder about the significance of the Height measurement.

I know in the old days military kilts seem to have been issued full-length regardless of the size of the wearer.



But I've noticed that in a couple respects the RRS kilts have gone away from traditional military specs (for example the binding and buckles) and I've seen RRS members with lower kilts than were seen in the old days.

Note everyone's kilt has been cropped to come up to the top of the waistbelt, leaving a few inches between the bottom of the chest pockets and the top of the kilt, even the shortest piper (first rank, 2nd from left) while in the photo of Argylls RSMs above the shorter gent's kilt comes well above his waistbelt and meets or covers the bottoms of his chest pockets.



Anyone who has studied the history of military uniforms has seen that they tend to follow civilian fashion trends and perhaps lower kilts is an example of that.

Personally I don't care for the low-cropped just-barely-high-enough look.

Being 6 foot 3 and not wanting a gap between the top of my kilt and the bottom of my waistcoat I have my kilts made to the length 25.5 inches, which is perfect for me. I see full-grown men ordering kilts 22 inches long thinking they're meant to hug the hips like jeans.

Which results in this. (I'm the piper.)



A dispensation must be given to the gent at far left, he must have been 6 foot 8 or thereabouts.

[User]

Thank you kindly for sharing.

Also, I must remember not to take a photo together with OC Richard, or I'll end up being used as an example of how not to wear a kilt :-)

[jsrnephdoc]

Thanks for that! It should be a sticky, due to how often members here window-shop military kilts, and sometimes purchase them.

A dispensation must be given to the gent at far left, he must have been 6 foot 8 or thereabouts.

My GOODNESS, that single picture tells so MANY stories. MY attention was drawn first to the giant on the left, but NOT because of the too-small/too short PC/waistcoat, but its LAPELS, even a bit worse than my own, with BOTH of them probably having been sourced from a vendor of ex-hire clothing at a local Highlands Games gathering.

Then there are the hose. YOURS are glorious.

And the shoes. Enough laces embracing the ankles to make Jock RUN in the other direction.

But, your sporran? I imagine you have a collection in your closet that requires a separate CLOSET, but I HAVE to know a bit more about that example.

(ducking; all in good fun).

[Jock Scot]

And the shoes. Enough laces embracing the ankles to make Jock RUN in the other direction.



(ducking; all in good fun).

Worry not my dear chap, running is not something that I can do these days. Besides, I have seen enough laces embracing ankles---including some rather pretty ones on ballerinas------not to loose much sleep over them!

[OC Richard]

And the shoes. Enough laces embracing the ankles to make Jock RUN in the other direction.

And me too! I never wear Ghillies with Evening Dress, always buckled brogues. BUT as I was getting dressed that day I pulled out my old Patent Leather buckled brogues only to find that the "leather" had disintegrated. My only choice was the dreaded Ghillies.

But, your sporran? I imagine you have a collection in your closet that requires a separate CLOSET, but I HAVE to know a bit more about that example.

It's one of my retirement-project sporrans. In another fashion problem that day, I pulled out my traditional goathair Evening sporran only to find that I had forgot to attach the cantle, which fell off.

So a not-quite-proper sporran was pressed into service.

Here's my Margaret Morrison "hunting" sporran on the left, it's basically a reproduction of a 1920s/1930s style.

The other three are my projects.