Great photos of Prince Charles kilted at the Castle of Mey

[Karl R]

I hope so! It's [the waistcoat (straight cut across the bottom)] a very nice look. It goes way back.

I found a website that offers a number of historical recreation waistcoats in that style.

[OC Richard]

I found a website that offers a number of historical recreation waistcoats in that style.

And they're commonly made for ordinary modern wear today, in Western Wear.

Scroll down to the wool vest, you will see a tweed waistcoat with four functional pockets, lapels, and cut straight across the bottom, as was long worn with Highland Day Dress.

https://bitterrootbitandspur.com/cat...l-canvas-vests

[Tobus]

I found a website that offers a number of historical recreation waistcoats in that style.

If you have a long torso, these may work fine. In my experience, though, they're too long to work well with kilts since they're meant to be long enough to cover the top of one's trousers worn down on the hips. I do have a flat-bottom waistcoat purchased from a local western wear shop, but it's still long enough that it interferes with my sporran and I feel like I'm fighting with it the whole time.

Looking at the photos that OC Richard posted, one can see that those waistcoats are much shorter than would be appropriate if they were wearing trousers like people wear today. They wouldn't cover to the tops of their trousers, and their shirts would be showing. In my opinion, that's the ideal length for a kilt waistcoat. If I were looking for an off-the-rack waistcoat with a flat bottom to work with a kilt, I'd probably buy a regular notched-bottom type and then have it shortened to my ideal length. But then again, I have a fairly short torso.

[Karl R]

If you have a long torso, these may work fine. In my experience, though, they're too long to work well with kilts since they're meant to be long enough to cover the top of one's trousers worn down on the hips.

Have you purchased from this store before? These waistcoats are not quite as long as normal vests. If you look at the trousers they sell, their historical trousers have a higher rise.

Many of the waistcoats are listed as having a back length of ~22". My Argyll waistcoat is 21" long in back. My older vests (for wearing with slacks) are 23" in back. And given that many of the waistcoats are straight cut, that effectively raises the front edge by a small amount. I may buy one (at some point in the future) and give it a try.

[kingandrew]

I also like the straight-cut vest look. I have two vests that were tailor-made for me and on both I have the straight vest. They work well with the sporran, since the points of a normal vest bottom might well interfere with the sporran strap or even the bag itself.

Andrew