Of Kilt Lenght(s)

[English Bloke]

On length: I wear mine mid knee (example below) for all my kilts. I've been out and about in howling wind and rain (I live in Lancashire after all, it's Englandshire's Rain Central) and selvage scrape has never bothered me. I must be quite resilient.



On Braces (Suspenders): I asked about this a long while ago as an option for securing your kilt when wearing a waistcoat without kilt belt. Responses were mainly "If you need a belt, your Kilt doesn't fit" (which is fair comment, my Kilts do...) but BarbT suggested wearing braces was a bad idea as it can distort the hang of the Kilt and cause permanent damage. For fear of ruining my investments, I bow to her wisdom and experience so consequently I've never worn them.

[guardsman]

most old pictures show top of knee, as in military,when mine was maid it was worn to top of knee cap to half wayof knee cap. Was passing by a wedding the other day, brides father had a kilt on that was under his knee, looked awful, badly measured at hire shop no doubt. English bloke, yours look good to me, cheers all

[OC Richard]

Anyone wearing the kilt to the middle of the knee has never been out walking in bad weather in one for any length of time

Thing is, the worst offenders (as a whole) are Pipe Band people, and in some parts of the world they spend a large percentage of their time in the rain. For example, at two of the three contests our band attended in Scotland in 2007 it rained the entire day. At these events there's no place to get out of the rain, except to cram into the overcrowded Beer Tent or go sit on the Band Coach, so most
Band people end up walking around in the rain for 8 straight hours.

Here are Scots (mostly) at a Scottish contest wearing the kilts rather too low, a thing too often seen with Pipe Bands



Here's well-dressed SFU showing a bit more knee, the most common modern Pipe Band way



Going back in time, a bit more knee was shown in the 18th century usually, with the hose worn a bit lower and the kilt at the top of the kneecap



Here in the early 19th century...



in the mid 19th century



and the military kept this classic look here in the 1960s

[guardsman]

1st photo look to piper on right , looks standard to me. Hard to tell from behind, but socks do look on high side

[Kiltedinkansas]

Definitely top of the knee.

[Jack Daw]

I have 9 kilts that end at the top to the middle of the knee. I can and do sometimes hike up the longer ones just a smidge to change it up. If I'm doing a lot of sitting I may opt for the kilt to be mid-knee.

[Gael Ridire]

I learned it was mid knee, but prefer the top of the knee. Currently my kilt doesn't have any belt loops and I find that in time the kilt will wiggle down out of the belt and then there's a problem. I've gone to wearing suspenders and hook the belt & kilt between the teeth thus no slippage. Without a wast coat I think it does looks tacky. Someday I hope to get a new kilt and reduce the excess baggage. I'm down 17 pounds, just another thirty to go!

[McElmurry]

I have been on a quest to understand the difference between kilt measuring directions on various websites and the way people actually wear their kilts. MacMillan’s Son offered to help me this weekend at the Sacramento Valley Scottish Games and Festival so we headed over to the vendors area where I could try on some mass-produced “traditional” kilts. I suspected the 24-inch length of the mass-produced kilts would be too short for me but I figured I could strap on a kilt at my true waist and measure the distance from the bottom of the kilt to the top of my knee…simples.

I was in the process of strapping on a kilt when the vendor came over telling me “'at kilt is tae wee fur ye”. I responded, “what?” and he replied “'at kilt is tae wee fur ye”. What followed was a sort of tug-of-war dance where I tried to pull the kilt up off of my trouser waist saying things like “shouldn’t the kilt be worn at the true waist” and the vendor tugging the kilt down to the top of my knee cap. Eventually I let him have his way and the kilt ended up with the bottom at the top of my knee cap and the top at the top of my navel. At this point the vendor became distracted, I removed the kilt, and Brooke measured it for length, 24 ½ inches. I left thinking the kilt was probably about an inch too short.

I thought about it overnight and decided to try again on Sunday afternoon, this time with my wife. Again the plan was to strap the kilt on at the waist where it felt comfortable and then measure the distance from the bottom of the kilt to the top of my knee cap…simples. Well no sooner do I get the kilt on than the vendor shows up bordering on apoplectic saying he will not sell me a kilt and (as far as I can glean from his speaking) questioning my “orientation.” I tried to explain I just wanted to measure from the bottom to see how much longer I needed but he said something about “boys” and would have none of it. He settled down a bit after I got the kilt off and I convinced him to take my measurements, the length being 25 ½.

We chatted a bit about kilt length. He was not a big fan of the kilt below the knees but the idea of a kilt that strayed too far above the knee cap seemed to cause him physical pain.

[English Bloke]

... We chatted a bit about kilt length. He was not a big fan of the kilt below the knees but the idea of a kilt that strayed too far above the knee cap seemed to cause him physical pain...

I'm inclined to agree with him.


This looks about right to me.

[pascs]

We chatted a bit about kilt length. He was not a big fan of the kilt below the knees but the idea of a kilt that strayed too far above the knee cap seemed to cause him physical pain.

I'm inclined to agree with him.

This looks about right to me.

I've never liked the look of too short a kilt and I'm always tempted to say 'pull it down a bit' if I see someone wearing it that way. Always mid knee for me too