no belt loops on kilt--what to do?

[slohairt]

I only put loops on a kilt if a customer insists, and even then I will still try to dissuade them. That said, if someone's waist size is bigger or equal to their hip size, sporran straps will help the sporran stay put.

[Bugbear]

My tank doesn't have belt loops, but my SWKs do. I haven't "needed" them. I will use them on my SWKs to keep my belt in place, but that's the only real benefit. I also don't put my sporran strap through any loops, as I like to be able to shift my sporran to the side in the restroom or while driving.

On the Stillwaters, there is no rise, and the kilt tapers all the way to the top at the waistband. It does kind of allow the belt to slide up.

Didn't have that problem so much after I put a stabilizer in mine, and the problem went completely away when I sewed the waistband on while stretching the top slightly for a rise, after cutting out all the extra pleat materiel, etc, etc, hair canvas, bla, bla, bla.

So I think the rise is part of the issue with the belt riding up. I didn't bother to put the loops back on.

[Rabbi_Pazo]

Beelts loops are not a traditional part of a kilt. In addition, a pipers kilt should have only ONE waist belt on each side; two in total, while a Dancer's kilt has the afrementioned two, plus and additional belt and buckle on the Upper apron, right below the right side waist belt and buckle.

Unfortunately, a great number of pipesr wear dancers kilts, and don't even know it.

[OC Richard]

From my first kilt, made by my Grandmother when I was a teen back in the 1970s, to the various Army kilts I wore in the late 70s, to the kilts I've had made for me from around 1980 to a few months ago, none have had loops.

Kilts aren't trousers, and I don't think the right course is to try to get an improperly fitting kilt to stay up by cinching a dirk belt around it. Properly fitting kilts stay up on their own.

These belts were called "dirk belts" in the old days and were worn to support a dirk, but rarely otherwise.

I rarely wear a belt when I'm out piping:



though I know it's the modern tradition to wear kilt jackets open with a dirk belt showing.

I especially dislike it when I see belts peeking out from under waistcoats (vests). It looks slopply to me. You don't see that in the old days.

End of rant.

[Barb T]

The following photo shows what happens when you wear a belt through loops on the back of a kilt:



As I wrote in TaOK, every time you bend or sit, the belt pulls up on the loops, and this distorts the horizontal tartan line across the back of the kilt. If you wear a kilt this way long enough, the bottom edge of the kilt actually pulls up permanently and doesn't lie straight.

[Lallans]

The following photo shows what happens when you wear a belt through loops on the back of a kilt:



As I wrote in TaOK, every time you bend or sit, the belt pulls up on the loops, and this distorts the horizontal tartan line across the back of the kilt. If you wear a kilt this way long enough, the bottom edge of the kilt actually pulls up permanently and doesn't lie straight.

OK I see it now so I believe it. I can always switch to suspenders I guess, they have the military's imprimatur. But still, does anyone argue about belt loops on trousers on a pants site somewhere? ... this shows that kilts are special I guess.

[Tony]

Are there actually pants sites to provide a forum for discussion of such intricacies?

anyway, pants dont have that extra couple of pounds of fabric at the back that pulls your butt down and makes you stand more upright with shoulders back....

[Caddy One]

Great question and great replies. Once again I've learned something new.
Thanks

[OC Richard]

There's a kilt I see here at every Games that's far worse than that one.

The back looks like the Golden Gate Bridge, or an inverted McDonald's Arches.

I'll be seeing it in nine days at the Queen Mary Games, unless the guy has got a new kilt since Pleasanton. I'll see if I can snap a photo of it without making him too suspicious as to my motives.

[kender]

The following photo shows what happens when you wear a belt through loops on the back of a kilt:



As I wrote in TaOK, every time you bend or sit, the belt pulls up on the loops, and this distorts the horizontal tartan line across the back of the kilt. If you wear a kilt this way long enough, the bottom edge of the kilt actually pulls up permanently and doesn't lie straight.

Is this an issue because the pleats are independent from each other or is it the fabric actually stretching? If the pleats are sewn together at the top, similar to utilikilts, does the same thing happen?