How NOT to wear a kilt

[jhockin]

I came across an ad, on a popular "social media" site, by someone offering a kilt for sale, "only worn once" and had to share the photo used ( :

[PiperPadre]

I think I saw that guy at the Alma, MI Games. I didn't't have the heart to tell him....

[YOJiMBO20]

Last year at the San Diego Games, I saw someone with his kilt backwards. I went up and quietly let him know that the pleats go in the back and he said “oh yeah!” and turned the kilt around.

Why people think they go in front (or how they can reasonably put a kilt on with pleats to the front) is beyond me.

[Brian Rose]

I was shocked to see photos on a kilt vendor website where the model had the kilt half right. It was a traditional kilt worn with the right hand strap buckles to the front. So pleats to the right and front apron to the left.
One would think that if the object is to sell kilts, it should be presented correctly. This vendor is in the USA. It’s been a while since I visited the site so the photos may have been corrected. As I remembered, there were more than one image like that.

[User]

...
Why people think they go in front (or how they can reasonably put a kilt on with pleats to the front) is beyond me.

Prior to taking an interest in kilts, most of my experience was with Japanese clothing. The hakama can be pleated several ways, but if it's only pleated on one half, then the pleats go in the front. This allows unrestricted leg and knee movement, and you don't mess up the pleats by sitting on them.

Pleats go in the front:


Not the back:


I don't think pleats in the front/back is intuitive. I think it's something that must be taught. If I didn't know better, I probably would have guessed pleats go in the front, because objectively speaking, sitting on pleats isn't ideal.

[kiltedsawyer]

I came across an ad, on a popular "social media" site, by someone offering a kilt for sale, "only worn once" and had to share the photo used ( :

The guy on the far right clearly has the kilt on backwards. But the guy on the far left has two straps on the right side, but buckled in reverse. Is this a skirt?

Cheers,

David

[YOJiMBO20]

I don't think pleats in the front/back is intuitive. I think it's something that must be taught. If I didn't know better, I probably would have guessed pleats go in the front, because objectively speaking, sitting on pleats isn't ideal.

The way I look at it is that it’s like wrapping up in a towel after swimming or showering. Wrap it around crossing in the front. The actual act of putting the kilt on with pleats in front is just confusing physically.

[User]

The way I look at it is that it’s like wrapping up in a towel after swimming or showering. Wrap it around crossing in the front. The actual act of putting the kilt on with pleats in front is just confusing physically.

I see what you mean. But for what it's worth, I put my sporran on backwards and then flip it around. I can picture people doing that with their kilt.

[jsrnephdoc]

The guy on the far right clearly has the kilt on backwards. But the guy on the far left has two straps on the right side, but buckled in reverse. Is this a skirt?

Cheers,

David

WAY back when I was in college, I made my first venture into wearing the family colors. Shortly after arrival for my freshman year, I discovered that my dorm advisor played the Pipes (AMAZINGLY well). He was the Pipe Major for the College's band, so 2 or 3 of us minnows came under his wing and acquired practice chanters. My 5 years younger sister had a ladies kilt in the almost impossibly garish red Robertson modern dress tartan, which I borrowed from her and wore whenever the band performed over the next four years. I never got beyond learning Scotland the Brave, The Rowan Tree, and one other march whose name I can't remember (no, it was NOT my favorite, The Black Bear); to keep the bag inflated, I had to plug the drones with wine corks. Two summers ago and more than 50 years later, sitting in the stands at the Edinburgh Royal Military Tattoo, my sister "reminded" me that I'd never returned that kilt! Back when I wore it, I had NO practical understanding of the differences between kilts and kilted skirts, but no one else complained when I wore it.

My mom, a small, much loved, but fierce disciplinarian high school English Teacher, was buried in her favorite teaching uniform (Robertson Red Waistcoat, silk blouse, and kilt). My sister gathered the attire and delivered it to the undertaker, but when we all arrived for the wake, Margie was horrified to discover that he'd dressed Mom with the pleats IN FRONT!

Of course, her requiem Eucharist was highlighted by a piper celebrating her life with the singularly AMERICAN tune that is so beautiful on the Pipes: (no, this is not a link to that performance, but it brings tears to my eyes every time I watch and listen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKQU...&start_radio=1

It makes no difference whether you're an atheist, flat-earther who's certain the universe was created in six days, or anywhere in between, if you've ever loved MUSIC, you'll be visiting this URL many, many times with tears in your own eyes.

[CBH]

I don't think pleats in the front/back is intuitive. I think it's something that must be taught. If I didn't know better, I probably would have guessed pleats go in the front, because objectively speaking, sitting on pleats isn't ideal.

I totally agree. From a practical perspective, it would make far more sense to put pleats in front.

Unfortunately tradition was done the other way