What is the appropriate wait time for a custom Kilt?

[Troglodyte]

On the subject of wearing a fly, I tried to wear a fly to a Halloween party thinking since I was already the most over dressed person there it wouldn't hurt. However, when it came to attaching it to my jacket, I could not figure out how to attach brooch without damaging jacket. Is the brooch just a counterweight or should it be pinned to jacket?

Attatching the plaid and brooch to the jacket is fairly simple once you have worked out which technique suits you best.

One method is to use the brooch (which needs to be a substantial thing, with a degree of heft - like a piper's plaid brooch) as a counterweight to the plaid. The top left corner of the plaid is passed under the left shoulder epaulette, and the brooch pinned to the nicely fringed point, a few inches in.

The corner of the plaid needs to be gathered or slightly pleated to form a 'tongue' that comes forward over the shoulder and onto the breast a little way - how far is up to you, and a period of trial and error and generally playing around with it is needed to discover what's best. Once you have this established, the pin of the brooch is passed through the protruding 'tongue' only, and the plaid is allowed to slip back half an inch or so, so that the brooch hooks onto the epaulette tab - the tab slips into the rear gap between plaid and brooch.

Some fly plaids are made fitted with an additonal portion of ready-pleated cloth that forms this tongue, so it's easy to work out what you need to do.

An alternative method is to secure the plaid either under or over the epaulette tab, and pass the pin of the brooch through both the tab and the plaid.

Both methods avoid pinning through the flat of the cloth of the doublet, and so potentially damaging it, but as there is no 'wrong' way, it comes down to personal choice.

If wearing an open front doublet, such as a Prince Charlie, the weight of the plaid can pull the jacket back and off the shoulder in an irritating way, and you are left having to pull it forward again frequently. The weight of the brooch counters this somewhat, so having the brooch slightly forward of the crest of the shoulder also helps.

Many men learn to dislike their fly plaids for these reasons, which is made worse by the way it can catch on a fellow diner's chair, your dancing partner's jewelery, or a tray of drinks. But this is true of sleeves and coat-tails, too, so to carry off a fly-plaid with panache requires some practice and thought.

Although dismissed and sneered at by many writers of how-to guides, the fly-plaid can add a chunk stylish dash and drama to a kilt outfit. And, provided the plaid contains a suitable quantity of cloth, it can also function as the true cape-like garment it is intended to be.

Failing any success with the plaid as a garment, you can always have cushion covers made from it.