How do you wear your ghillie brogues?

[Dominic MacGregor]

Hi all,

I'm currently putting together guides on how to wear kilt outfits and we're currently working on the Ghillie Brogues piece.

I know this can be controversial and I wondered - how do you wear yours?

Do you tie the knot at the front or the side?

How far up do you lace yours?

Any unconventional tips?

[McMurdo]

I learned from this blog
http://www.bagpipejourney.com/articl..._brogues.shtml

[The Wizard of BC]

Controversial? you bet.

I own one pair pair. They sit in the drawer where I keep the rental accessories. If some guy feels that because he saw Ghillies on some other rental website, that the most uncomfortable, impractical and useless footwear ever invented are part of the rental "uniform" then I'll let him wear mine.

[Terry Searl]

I got a pair second hand at a thrift store, and to me they are very comfortable ......... I like how they show the colour of the stockings through the "eyelets" to each his own I suppose......advice and opinion are often mistaken for the same thing,..... but they aren't ........just my opinion though

[javankrona]

I'm currently breaking in a pair of Dr. Marten's 3969 Boanil Brush in Black; wore them at my last kilted outting to "Dirty Dancing." After reading the boards for some time, I opted out of the ghillies ... though I've not yet ruled out the ghilliators ... ")

[kilted scholar]

If I was an American I'd plead the fifth amendment.

I don't. The reason for this is I don't have any, have never had any, and will never have any in the future.

[EagleJCS]

I wrote this up a long time ago in this thread (copied & pasted here, and edited just a bit):

"I wear the long-laced ghillies when piping (part of the band uniform). Here's how I do it:

Start out as if you were tying a regular shoe, including the initial half-hitch (wrap one lace over the other). (First snug the laces down to tighten the shoe).

Twist (cross the laces over one another) three times and snug the twists down. This should make a short 'line' in the middle front of your ankle, just above the top of the shoe where the top of the shoe's tongue would normally be.

Bring the laces around each side of your ankle at an angle just above the ankle bone (probably 5-10 degrees from horizontal).

Tie another half-hitch in the back, and three more twists, snugged down to make a short line up the back of the leg.

Bring the laces back around each side of your leg, this time parallel to the floor. Tie off as you would tie your regular shoe laces (a half-hitch and the bows). You can tie them off directly in front or just off to the side. I tend to tie mine around 10 o'clock (left leg) and 2 o'clock (right leg), with the knot ending up pretty much in line with the middle of the flashes. (The front edge of the flashes are just to the outside of the center line of my shinbone. The back edge is then just forward of the midline of my calf.)

This should result in a knot no higher than about 2" or so above the top of the shoe, just above the ankle bone.

I double-knot the bows to make sure they don't come undone when I'm marching. I also try to get the bows and tassels hanging at about the same height, just brushing the top edge of the shoe. That way neither are dragging the ground. As I'm sure you've experienced, it's sometimes difficult to untie shoe laces once they've gotten wet and dried again - the knot tends to tighten up some."

[Bruce Scott]

I don't own a pair and won't. I simply do not like the look of them.

[Richrail]

I have a pair, I don't wear them often but my wife really likes when I do. I used the tutorial on the USAkilts website for tying them.

[Bob C]

I always shake my head when someone asks for advice on how to do something and gets a lot of snotty replies from people who have to let us all know that they would never do that.

Unlike those people, I will try to be helpful:

I tie mine in the front, at the height six twists of the laces provides. Probably about an inch and a half.