Womens kilt

[glasgow32]

Are womens kilts made like mens kilts? I am asking because I have some extra Forbes tartan and thought I might make a kilt for my mother. However the only womens kilts I've seen have been from Ralph Lauren or Brooks Brothers and thought that might not be the best representation.

[Tobus]

Traditionally, women don't wear mens' kilts. I've seen it said that a woman's kilt is made backwards, with the apron wrapping to the left instead of the right. Or a tartan skirt that comes below the knee. But generally, a traditional kilt is hard to fit to a woman's shape because it requires a lot more tapering in the fell. I'm no expert, though.

[James Hood]

The below was in the Ladies' section of The Scottish Lion Import Shop site.

Feminine kilted options seem alive and well.


..........................
Traditional Tartan Kilted Skirt



Price: $299.00
Hostess Tartan Kilted Skirt



Price: $389.00
Diana Kilted Skirt



Price: $385.00
Tartan Fiona Skirt



Price: $357.86

.......................... .......................... .......................... ..........................
Tartan A-Line Skirt



Price: $231.11
Tartan Billie Skirt



Price: $123.89
Tartan Mini Kilt Skirt



Price: $179.00
Coco Tartan Skirt



Price: $279.00

..........................
Ladies Semi Kilt

Ladies Semi Kilt

Price: $249.00

[tulloch]

Most dancers are women and they wear kilts or a very close item to one. I think they are kilts but there may be differences. My daughter wears a kilt in our band. I rib her about wearing mens clothing.

[Tartan Tess]

Your mother might like to have a nice tartan kilted skirt from the fabric.
doesn't have to look like a mans kilt or dancers kilt. and can be like a "Hostess" kilt (length to her ankles) if you have enough tartan. just making use of the nice tartan without the number of pleats being important for a big swish, less weight.

[Pleater]

Well - in my experience, girls wear kilts which are just like a man's in design, they close on the right but tend to be a bit longer to allow for growth, they would have been thought too short if anything more than slightly less than knee length.

Women would wear a kilt of 27 inches length, again made in the same way as a man's, but quite possibly with fewer pleats, or finer fabric to make it lighter. The 27 inches being one half of the 54inch standard width for all wool cloth.

Quite a few of the early 60's mini skirts made with a small set size lightweight Royal Stuart tartan and being worn by young women in South Yorkshire were made as a man's kilt would have been, but before long cheaper and less well made ones came in from abroad and they were just skirts with pleats in the back and no double apron.

To my mind, the kilt is a standard design, and is worn the same way by all. Messing around with the direction of the pleats and the side to fasten is not what was done 50 years ago and more.

You might check with your mother about what she would like - for both the style and the length so that you make something that would get worn rather than put away for special occasions.

I wear skirts which vary in length from top of the knee to ankle, but the 27 inch ones seem to get the most use.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[Alan H]

Well - in my experience, girls wear kilts which are just like a man's in design, they close on the right but tend to be a bit longer to allow for growth, they would have been thought too short if anything more than slightly less than knee length.

Women would wear a kilt of 27 inches length, again made in the same way as a man's, but quite possibly with fewer pleats, or finer fabric to make it lighter. The 27 inches being one half of the 54inch standard width for all wool cloth.

Quite a few of the early 60's mini skirts made with a small set size lightweight Royal Stuart tartan and being worn by young women in South Yorkshire were made as a man's kilt would have been, but before long cheaper and less well made ones came in from abroad and they were just skirts with pleats in the back and no double apron.

To my mind, the kilt is a standard design, and is worn the same way by all. Messing around with the direction of the pleats and the side to fasten is not what was done 50 years ago and more.

You might check with your mother about what she would like - for both the style and the length so that you make something that would get worn rather than put away for special occasions.

I wear skirts which vary in length from top of the knee to ankle, but the 27 inch ones seem to get the most use.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

What with the large number of people on this board who are gung-ho on customs from this era and preceding decades, I quite wish that more of them would read what you just wrote.

I've been told this as well, by a woman of my acquaintance who emigrated to the USA around 1955.

BOLD added by me, BTW.

[Barb T]

As people have said above, a traditional kilt is a man's garment. Women who play in pipe bands wear a traditional kilt, as do Highland dancers regardless of gender. There is literally no difference in how I make a kilt whether I make it for a man or a woman.

Having said that, there are aspects of a traditional kilt that might not be something that your mother would choose or like. A trad kilt has a 2" rise, which is there so that the traditional short jacket (like a PC) can be worn without having a gap between the bottom of the jacket and the top of the kilt. This was the style of jacket worn with both kilts and trews back in the day (and trews had a high rise as well - think Jared in Labyrinth). The rise also keeps the bottom of the vest below the top of the kilt when a dancer raises her arms. Aaaaanyway, a 2" rise on a skirt isn't what your mother would expect, and you might want to cut the rise down. If you ordered a ladies kilt skirt, it wouldn't have the rise that a trad kilt has.

Second, a trad kilt has a whole ton of heavy material in the back (roughly 6 yards of it....), and your mother might find that weird as well. That's why ladies kilt skirts have so much less fabric and are commonly pleated to the "nothing".

Third, a trad kilt comes to the top of the knee. Chances are that your mom wouldn't be happy with a garment that short, which is also why women's kilt skirts are typically made longer than kilts are.

And last, a trad kilt has very stiff interfacing across the pleats to help keep their shape, but it might feel weird for your mom. The ladies kilt skirts that are sold out there have very little interfacing.

So, bottom line, I think that the issues are more rise, amount of fabric, length and amount of stiffening in the pleats, if what she's looking for is a comfortable garment that feels like a skirt. Opening right or left side is a trivial issue by comparison (although I will say that you can't just reverse the apron and under apron because then the pleats go the wrong way).

[EagleJCS]

Some of the ladies in the Louisville Pipe Band have also said that the men's kilt doesn't "hang" right from/over their hips (not sure what that means - ladies?).

My piping instructor has had a couple of kilts custom-made with "a little extra hip room" (I don't know the details), and they do look better on her than her band-issued kilt. She's not a slender/athletic female, but she's not obese by any means either. I'd say on the zaftig side of normal.

[Alan H]

Honestly Barb...why would those things feel odd to a woman, but not feel odd to a man?

I suspect that the reason is because "men are used to it, and women aren't"... which is logical in some aspects, but not in others. In other words, for a woman who'd worn a lot of kilt skirts before, a mans kilt might feel a bit odd...certainly different.

For someone who'd never worn a kilt or a kilt skirt before, all of those things would probably be irrelevant.