MOD Kilt Top Band Color

[Mickey]

I have to know.... I've noticed that MOD kilts seem to all have a colored top waistband, usually in green. Is there any significance to this?

[Chas]

It is the colour they originally had to hand and uniforms are by definition uniform. If there was no good and compelling reason to change ALL the military kilts, then it stayed the same.

Regards

Chas

[Nick the DSM]

My Seaforth and highlanders (BW tartan) is the same way, from the 90's.

[The Wizard of BC]

As I am re-building the Regimental kilts I too had this same question. I was trying to source new waistband banding.
It seems that this green banding may have originally been what was used as the binding on the unit's horse blankets.
Perhaps they thought, "Why not. We wear our tunic over our kilts so no one will every see it. It is ready available and always on hand."

I also turned up some who think the tradition 'diaper' style pin may have been the horse blanket pins. In the very early days, before straps and buckles the soldiers may have simply adopted what was available and pinned their kilts on. When straps and buckles came in the pin was moved down.

I have no firm or verifiable documentation to either of these but it sounds plausable.

[Chas]

Until very recently (and maybe even still) the forces used a rot proof canvas of the same colour. Supposedly it was treated with arsenic and it was standard procedure to wash hands after handling it, till such time as it was first washed or rained upon.

Whether this has any bearing on the matter I have no idea.

Regards

Chas

[Mickey]

Thanks Chas. Very interesting!

[madmacs]

Sure makes altering them easier than having to find a piece of tartan to match... especially if it needs to be longer than the piece already attached

[NeightRG]

I also turned up some who think the tradition 'diaper' style pin may have been the horse blanket pins. In the very early days, before straps and buckles the soldiers may have simply adopted what was available and pinned their kilts on.

I've done this with a couple of my kilts. I'll wear them a few days without lining or straps, just to make sure I feel good about everything before taking that next step.

As for the green banding on top - I'd always imagined that there was similarly colored banding or piping somewhere else on the uniform, and it has since been grandfathered in so that the old kilts can still be used.

Never having handled an MOD kilt, I have to ask - is the green part twill tape, or a strip cut from a wider piece of fabric?

[OC Richard]

As far as I know, Scottish Highland military kilts have always had that grass-green binding. BTW it has a herringbone pattern weave.

And not only the binding, but the loops to hang up the kilt.

Grass-green is also used for other things, such as the bows (called "rosettes" by the regiment) which appeared on the kilts of sergeants and officers in The Black Watch



and for the embroidery thread and ribbon used to create the panels which appeared on the kilts of sergeants and officers of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders





(I should add my customary disclaimer that I'm talking about the Highland regiments of the Scottish military, not the military of Canada or any other place.)

[OC Richard]

is the green part twill tape, or a strip cut from a wider piece of fabric?

It appears to be tape, in a herringbone pattern, woven in the width required.

Ditto for traditional garter flashes: herringbone pattern wool tape woven to the required width. Much nicer (and more traditional) than modern flashes cut from a large width of kilting fabric.

Ditto for traditional drone ribbons, which were of silk woven to the proper width. Modern drone "ribbons" cut from wool kilting cloth never look quite right to me.