Waistcoat length

[Drwill4]

Have a question about the length of a waistcoat. Still very new here and am not familiar with the more traditional way of wearing kilts. Most of my time is spent wearing t-shirts and my kilt at or around my jeans waist.

Now however with the weather getting cooler I'm looking at sweaters and vests/waistcoats. Are waistcoat lengths cut specifically for kilts? I assume the biggest concern is to ensure there is no shirt showing between the kilt top and the bottom of the waistcoat. Is that the only concern or can it also be too long like when wearing a normal suitcoat with a kilt?

Don

[OC Richard]

I often wear waistcoats bought at ordinary shops with the kilt and they're fine.

I suppose it varies from vest to vest, but the ones I've bought are just the right length, seems to me.

I should mention that I do like my kilts made to the traditional waist height, not the low blue-jeans height. So for me there's always a few inches overlap between kilt and vest and there's no possibility of a gap appearing.

I picked up this vest at an ordinary shop in a mall- Penny's or Macy's



This one too- at Eddie Bauer



over 100 years ago, this sort of vest. As always, you neither want the waistcoat overlapping the top of the sporran, nor do you want a big gap between the two.

[MacEanruig]

I agree with everything OCRichard posted. Also, don't be afraid to browse your local Salvation Army or Goodwill store for a bargain. I recently bought a nice Harris Tweed coat for $10. I have seen many nice waistcoats.

[Todd Bradshaw]

As long as you don't have a gap with your shirt hanging out, I think just about any vest will work decently. We make most of mine and I have two basic patterns we developed for them. One is pretty typical with the points along the front bottom. I'll use this pattern, and it may or may not have lapels, fancy pocket flaps, stag buttons or a tweed back added.



If my intent is to wear it mostly with a jacket, I cut it a bit shorter and with a pretty level bottom, similar to some shown on the Scotweb website from Dalgliesh and in some photos I've seen of Prince Charles. The thing I like about these is that if it happens to be chilly outside (which happens here) and you want to button the jacket for warmth, you don't have the points on the waistcoat hanging out of the sporran cut-away on the jacket - which I personally find rather goofy looking.



You probably couldn't get away with one of these short ones with a kilt at jeans-waist, but they still work OK with no jacket on a waist-height kilt.

[Drwill4]

Appreciate the responses and especially the images. That lines up with what I thought but it's always nice to get a confirmation from those with a lot more experience.

Don

[tundramanq]

I wear my kilts at the low "jeans" position. So I buy coats, coatees and vests in the long/tall length. This gives me the needed overlap. Then I adjust the sleeve length as needed myself.

[cck]

The only problem I have encountered with standard waistcoats is that they may be too long and/or the points will interfere with the sporran. You need to try it on and see how the length fits. I have been able to widen the points on a couple of waistcoats to make them look better with the sporran.

[MNlad]

Most waistcoats seem to work great with the kilt when worn solo, but often need shortening when matched with a jacket—let your eye be the judge. Over the years I have collected a good variety of vests at bargain stores while in search of jackets in need of a conversion to kilt length. Half have gone under the knife, while the others remain at their original length. I actually find a contrasting vest with a tweed jacket more appealing than a matching set.

[Profane James]

If I may add a somewhat related question,
How does the material, back type, and arm cut affect the fit of the jacket worn over the waistcoat? Given that a certain jacket fits properly without waistcoat, is this common sense? Non issue? Jackets aren't buttoned when paired with waistcoat?

[Taskr]

Echo of previous comments. I found a lot of waistcoat/vest to be a bit long an interfere with the sporran but not all. Try and buy.

PJames. A waistcoat shouldn't interfere in any way with a properly fitted jacket - excepting the "skinny style" jacket which is much closer fitting.