Narrow belts

[Catdad]

Okay, attribute this question to my being a newbie as far as kilts are concerned. Would it be acceptable to wear a regular narrow pants belt with my kilt or am I only supposed to wear the 3" wide kilt belt with them?

[lucienrau]

Regular pants belts around 2" can look fine with a kilt. Less than that they can get lost in the pattern and look a bit funny. It all depends on the look you want. I prefer either a belt or sporran but not both since I think that both looks a bit busy especially with 3" belts with giant silver buckles. Some people love the look and think that an unbelted kilt looks like a skirt. If you're planning on wearing a jacket, you don't need a belt.

[piperdbh]

You've opened a can of worms asking about "acceptable" and "supposed to".
I think most folks here will say that the wide belt looks better, and I agree with them. If you have a leather strap on your sporran, a narrow belt might "blend in" with it, and not get noticed.
The belt is not to hold up the kilt, anyway, and is not a required accoutrement.
I personally prefer to wear just a sporran instead of a belt, but last weekend at Loch Norman I had a new belt to show off, so I wore both.
I would suggest to you that if you don't have a wide belt, then go without a belt, but if you want to wear a narrow belt, then wear it.

Welcome aboard, by the way, form western North Carolina, the greatest place on Earth.

[Macman]

No worries; we were all newbies once! I prefer the look of a wider (2-3") belt with the kilt. It just seems more balanced to my eye. Regular p###s belts just don't look right to me. I wouldn't say that you're "supposed to wear" 3" wide belts, though.

[Monkey@Arms]

To my eye most regular pants belts look too skinny with kilts (even Utilikilts), and a dress pants belt would look way too narrow, better to not wear a belt at all.

A lot depends on your body type. Some big guys wear 3" wide but I've never gone above the standard sized kilt belt, which is 2.25" (You might want to check out the pics in the style threads to see what looks right for you.)

If cost is an issue you can get a serviceable kilt belt with buckle from SWK for around $23.

Best regards,

Jake

[McClef]

Narrow belts are unlikely to have a nice fancy buckle...

[lethearen]

With my SportKilt that I wore at my p***s waist, I used my standard 1.5 inch belt. I thought it looked ok. But then the kilt was only 20" long, so I think the proportions were doable. With a kilt worn at traditional kilt waist, I think a narrow belt would get lost, and would look tacky or just plain wrong. The visual field would be unbalanced.

I sold that one to another Xmarker, so I don't have to worry about it any more My other kilts take a full 2.25" kilt belt too look right.

[skauwt]

Narrow belts are unlikely to have a nice fancy buckle...

i think youd be suprised at the amount of buckles out there for 1" to 2" belts

[cavscout]

The key to belt width is visual proportion and keeping everything balanced. On contemporary or casual kilts that are much shorter than a traditional high waisted kilt, it's possible to get by with a narrower belt. I used to wear a 1.75" belt with my USAK casual and it looked just fine as the kilt was about 22" long. When I wear a 24" long kilt 1.75 looks like a piece of string around the waist so to keep the proportions in balance I wear a 2.5" belt. Very tall guys can go up to a 3" belt and stay in visual proportion.

Also, there are many different buckle styles out there. You aren't limited to the traditional, shiny, waist plate style buckles for casual wear. You can find roller buckles, cast center bar buckles,.... Dig into the pics on the site and see all the different styles available.

[puckhead9]

I personally wear a 2-1/2" belt. Being a larger sized waist I like the wider belt as they do not try and roll around the "dunlop". Just my opinion.