
Originally Posted by
Ted Crocker
I see where you're going with that. I have a gray waistcoat that I can turn up the bottum an inch and a half or so all the way around, and it would work fine with a kilt. Put a safetypin on either side and it's good to go. It just happens to be the right shape and length to do that. I need the waistcoat more for my suits, so I can't hem it.
That is a five button waistcoat; I don't know about the evening waistcoats.
Back in the day...Victorian or Edwardian days...men wore their trousers much higher on the torso, very much at roughly the same level as a kilt is supposed to be worn (think military trews, if nothing else). Waistcoats were shorter by comparison to what is worn today and were often cut straight across--no points on the bottom.
For me that provides a rough guide for waistcoats with kilts. Not the only guide or the only look but one that is perfectly in sync with wearing a kilt and a sporran.
My suggestion would be to try turning up the points of your contemporary vest to create a straight bottom and see how that looks rather than trying to turn it up all the way around.
BTW, five button waistcoats with straight bottoms (and high gorge notched-lapels are readily available, in many different fabrics and colours. And almost always of higher quality construction than the one that came with your suit--which is always sort of an afterthought.
DWFII--Traditionalist and Auld Crabbit
In the Highlands of Central Oregon
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