Where do you wear your kilt?

[Chas]

Your waist is a fixed point on your body, because it relates to your bone structure.

Your navel is soft tissue and its position on your body is highly variable. For a start, it may or may not be on your body's centre line!

Twins, stood side by side will not necessarily have their navels in the same place. How they were lying in the womb affects the final position even before they start to grow.

If a pathologist is given one of long bones of a human being they will be able to tell you, with a high degree of accuracy, the height of the individual. There are very good and accurate tables for this. On the other hand, given any number of bones (up to and including a full skeleton), they would not be able to place the navel with any more accuracy than you or I.

As a male ages, he is likely to put on a 'gut'. That means the skin has to stretch to accommodate the extra fat layer. Gravity will drag it downwards. If he looses the gut, there is no guarantee that the skin will shrink back equally above and below the navel.

It is my belief that the older we get, the more our navel moves south.

Regards

Chas

[Spartan Tartan]

Where I wear my kilt at the top is secondary to achieving proper height relative to my knees. That said, I have traditional kilts which were made with a traditional 2 inch rise... I guess that puts the top over my naval about an inch or two.

As others have pointed out, traditional kilts are worn at the natural waist and tailored to fit at the wearer's hips then long enough to meet their knee-selvege preference. None traditional kilts will be made for natural or other points of wear. Assuming (not to open the knee placement debate) that each person prefers the bottom at a particular point, then they would wear the top differently based upon the type and style of kilt being worn.

Were I to wear a casual kilt (i do not, but if i did), then i would certainly wear it lower at the top than my traditional kilts. Otherwise the bottom edge would be mid-thigh...and NOBODY wants to see that!!!

[OC Richard]

I've never thought about where my navel is in relation to the top of the kilt, but for the sake of this poll I strapped on my favourite kilt and it was 6".

Yes the important thing is where the bottom is in relation to the knee, but it does bother me if a kilt is too short, making the top too low. I had to wear such in a band for a year and it was a constant bother; for example the kilt would separate from my waistcoat, an unsightly thing. (It's an all-too-common sight in pipe bands, waistcoats too short combined with kilts worn too low.)

There's a "just right" length for me, a feel for which I've developed over the last 35 years. The "finding your natural waist" thing has never worked for me, because even when I was quite skinny I didn't have a visible waist. Now being overweight makes it worse. In any case I have my kilts made to a 26" length (I'm 6'4"). (I don't own an off the peg kilt.)

[Singlemalt]

My old Canadian made tank is very high in the waist. It was made for me by a very traditional kiltmaker who measured it for me herself. I would say it sits 3-4" above my navel. I think it is of the traditional design outlined by Steve. It is comfortable, rides very well and has great swing. It's 24" overall length but the hem is perfect at the top of my knee. However, it does look odd to me when worn without a jacket or sweater as the top is just under my ribcage. I know a generation ago this was common, especialy in the military. The couple of kilts I have ordered in the last few years are 22" and sit just above my navel but also are right on my knee. I prefer the look without a jacket when worn more casually. I don't see either as right or wrong just different levels of formality and I am glad I have both.

[Nathan]

I have two kilts that sit differently and I'm happy about that.

The shorter of the two is the Clan Donald Modern I got as a teenager and as I have grown a little since then, my shirt has been known to peek out a little below my the waistcoat of my Prince Charlie outfit. Not cool.

It's not the end of the world though because I find the lower rise on this kilt looks better with anything tucked in. More of the shirt is visible which corresponds to current fashion.

On the other hand, my brother made my Clanranald Modern kilt in the traditional way more recently and the straps are at my natural waist with a traditional rise putting the top waistband roughly two inches above my navel. This also puts the waistband just 2" below the bottom of my pectoral muscles.

That's a bit high for the current fashion eye of the non-Highland world so when I tuck a golf shirt or t-shirt into it, the look is a little odd to my eyes although probably perfectly correct and traditional. However, when I wear it with any waistcoat or even with a pullover it looks perfect!

Options are good!

[McElmurry]

One way to locate your true waist (if you have one) is to strap on a one inch belt above your hipbone and below your ribcage. A snug belt will ride at your true waist. In my experience this is the highest my kilt rides when it is strapped on tightly. Eight yards of wool tends to pull the kilt down a bit and if I am between holes or just want to wear it one hole looser it will settle down an inch or so.

[gordontaos]

Posted in Error

[creagdhubh]

All of my (bespoke, 8-yard heavyweight) kilts it at about 2-3" above my navel. I like to wear mine a bit higher up (which tends to be especially visually pleasing whilst wearing a waistcoat or a coatee) and the selvedge hits right at the top my knee cap.

Cheers,

[Dale Seago]

My kilts (from two different makers, Matthew Newsome and USAK) are all constructed as Steve described in post #19. They all go up to about an inch and a half above my navel, and down to the top of my knee. I mostly wear a 2" wide kilt belt (when I do wear a belt), outside the loops on the kilt, and that generally leaves an inch to an inch and a half of cloth showing above the belt.

[O'Searcaigh]

When I had only one 9 yd wool kilt which was not bespoke (for me) I wore it very high ('cause it was way long over my knees otherwise). My second 9 yd wool kilt was made bespoke for me and I wear it comfortably about 1.5 to 2 inches above my navel which makes the drop fall at just above the middle of my knees. I subsequently got my other kilt altered to the same measurements. But -- where one's navel is and where one's "natural waist" is are not necessarily the same. I find that wearing the kilt so the top edge is just slightly above the midway point between the top of my hip and lower ribs is most comfortable, and evidently looks good too (or so I am told).
As Jock has already said, the key point is where it falls at the knee, adjusting the top up or down to make sure it is "knee perfect!"