St Kilda Australia kilts (formally all things tartan)

[Drum Major]

Doug and Karen Manger of St Kilda Retail Australia (formally All Things Tartan) are definately authourised agents for St Kilda in Australia. They make quality kilts. You should ensure you select good material for your kilt that feels good on the skin as not all cloth is the same.

[wildrover]

First decide if you want to wear your kilt as a traditional kilt (at the natural waist) or as a more contemporary kilt, at the pants waist. For various reasons, I highly recommend the natural waist.

To get the length, kneel on the floor with your thighs and torso straight up and down. Your kilt should just brush the floor. Your natural waist is about at your bellybutton anyway, so use it as a reference...wrap a measuring tape around your torso at the bellybutton, note whether the top or bottom edge of the tape is at your bellybutton, make sure the tape is level front to back and side to side, take the measurement, and mark the "bellybutton line" on your back. Now have someone measure from that mark to the floor, as you're kneeling. Add two inches for a two inch rise, add four inches for a four inch rise, etc., and that is the length of the traditional kilt that will fit you. FWIW, my kilt has about a 1" rise, as measured. Not a bad set of measurements to have in mind, if you're at a Games and browsing the OTR kilts! A kiltmaker will need more measurements than that, but as far as length, the kneeling measurement from the bellybutton reference will get the job done perfectly.

IMHO, trying to do it with a towel is sketchy at best, particularly if you've never worn a kilt before (you may end up looking like some of the ignominious and hilarious "kilts" in the Media section...we should have a thread for that, ie "These are NOT kilts" ...) , and only results in a continuation of IMHO unnecessary discussions about whether someone is wearing their kilt too low, too high, etc...measure it correctly, wear it at the right level on your torso, and you'll not need to worry about fabric sawing at the back of your knees (because it will, if you're sagging your kilt like a gangsta), nor about flashing your thighs like a schoolgirl.

Later, if for some reason you either need or are forced by social convention to wear your kilt at a slightly different height, you can always hike it up (for water crossings) or down (to avoid scandalizing the congregation with your dead-sexy knees) as necessary...it only takes a second. When you're actually wearing it, it may migrate up and down through the day, but my kilt doesn't generally shift more than an inch downward anyway, and that's after hours and hours of wearing/walking/sliding on the back of it down a snowfield/etc...

So yes, it moves, yes, there's a range around your knee where it looks "best" IMHO, and if you measure correctly in the first place for the style of kilt you want (pants waist vs natural waist), you're more likely to get "in the ballpark" when it comes time to kilt up.

Sorry for the digression, you were asking about St. Kilda kilts...

-Sean

[RockyR]

SNIP..

IMHO, trying to do it with a towel is sketchy at best, particularly if you've never worn a kilt before (you may end up looking like some of the ignominious and hilarious "kilts" in the Media section...we should have a thread for that, ie "These are NOT kilts" ...) , and only results in a continuation of IMHO unnecessary discussions about whether someone is wearing their kilt too low, too high, etc...measure it correctly, wear it at the right level on your torso, and you'll not need to worry about fabric sawing at the back of your knees (because it will, if you're sagging your kilt like a gangsta), nor about flashing your thighs like a schoolgirl.

I would tend to disagree with this statement. I actually find that the 'bath towel' method is often a VERY good method to use. When you try to measure something (the natural waist at the side of the body, to the floor, then add the rise) when you don't do it for a living like kilt makers do, it can be pretty tough. You'd be SHOCKED how many kilt orders we get with 27 or 28" lengths and 19 or 20" lengths. When we ask how tall the individual is (before processing the order), they give us their height and then say "I wasn't sure if we did the length measurement right..."

The 'bath towel' method gives the novice "measurer" a VISUAL AID which will show them how long the kilt will be, where it'll hit their knee and where the top will be. I find that when people use this method (at least for our kilts), they tend to be happier with the results.