Where should the belt ride?

[The Wizard of BC]

A lot is going to depend on what type of kilt you have and where you are wearing it.

If you have a full traditional kilt it is meant to be worn very high. All traditional kilts are designed to be worn at the anatomical natural waist.
Strange as it may seem most guys today do not know where their waist is. Do not reference the navel. The navel will be in a different place on each guy. A guy with a belly will have a navel much lower than a thin guy. You must reference the skeleton. The anatomical natural waist is right under the ribs. In the back, up at kidney level, and in front three or four fingers below the bottom of the breastbone.

If you have a traditional kilt the smallest part of the kilt will be where the top straps are. The kilt will taper in from the hips to the top buckles and then flare out above them to fit up, over the bottom of the ribs.

The decorative Dirk Belt will settle naturally at the smallest part of the kilt. It should be centered over the top straps and buckles.

It sounds from your description that you have one of those kilts with no flare above the top straps. They are becoming more common. This type of kilt will not sit at the natural waist. It will slide down until the smallest part of the kilt fits at the smallest part of your body. This often causes the belt to ride up, above the top of the kilt. This is why many guys feel that must use the sporran loops at the back of the kilt as belt loops. This is actually wrong and will permanently distort the kilt over time. This is also one of the reasons you see so many guys with the hem so low and the bottom of the Fell below the crest of the hips resulting in the dread 'shower curtain' waves in the back of the kilt.

So yes, a photo of your kilt and belt would help us a lot.