Another daywear outfit, featuring a new kilt in Lochcarron's Niagara Tartan

[KennethSime]

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Happy Easter, rabble! Here's another take on daywear for me. The kilt is new, and so I thought I’d talk about that while I have your attention (and a glass of Scotch in my hand). 🙂

My Great Grandparents came over from Dundee in the 1890s or so and settled in Ontario before moving on to Upstate New York. To be real specific actually, they fell in love as teenagers in Dundee. When her family moved to New York, he tried to follow, but was denied entry into the US. He settled in Ontario, and they courted across Lake Ontario & the Niagara River. When they were old enough to marry, they did so in Canada, and whereupon he was finally granted US citizenship via marriage. It’s my favorite family love story.

Burnett's & Struth had their massive sale on in-stock tartan back in Feb, and I noticed they had this tartan in stock - even though I'd never seen it before, I couldn’t resist, and ordered up a 5-yard "casual" kilt. Needless to say, it appears anything but casual. Plenty of pleats in the back, and 16oz cloth from Lochcarron never fails to disappoint. The straps aren't quite as beefy as my 5-yard form USA Kilts, but then this was about half the price. I don’t particularly love blues, but I’m glad I took a chance on this one - the navy field is a nice change of pace from my other kilts. Further, this is probably the best-fitting kilt since my first I received as a teenager, which was measured by the kilt maker himself. I'm quite pleased with B&S.

The tie is new, also, from Ingles Buchan. It features small reproductions of the Fraser of Lovat clan crest on a navy field, and only cost me $10.00. I'm a sucker for good deals.

[McMurdo]

That is a smart outfit and lovely tartan, made more so by the story behind it. I have noticed with the Royal Naval Association tartan that blue can be a tricky one to wear. My approach now is to wear it just like I would any other tartan, it took me years to get to that realization.

[KennethSime]

That is a smart outfit and lovely tartan, made more so by the story behind it. I have noticed with the Royal Naval Association tartan that blue can be a tricky one to wear. My approach now is to wear it just like I would any other tartan, it took me years to get to that realization.

Thank you Glen, for the kind words and the sage advice.

[OC Richard]

That's a very nice tartan!

I do tend to like blue tartans.

I have a quirky and much-flawed book

World Tartans
Iain Zaczek
2001, Collins & Brown, London

which has a tartan that looks roughly similar called Niagara Falls which the author calls "a modern trade tartan".

The differences between the tartan they show and your kilt could be just another of numerous errors in that book. (In some cases the computer-generated illustration has errors, in other cases it's a different tartan altogether.)

About colours to co-ordinate with that kilt, I've seen photos of Glen wearing brown and/or tan tweed jackets which would probably look fantastic. The colour-theory behind it is that blue and orange are complimentary colours, brown being a very dull orange.

My old Pipe Major wore a lovely brilliant turquoise Anderson tartan kilt and he invariably wore blue jackets with it. He even had a bespoke Royal Blue Argyll jacket & waistcoat. It was a bit too much blue, seemed to me.

About the leather straps on kilts, I've been wearing kilts for 45 years and I've got very used to the usual thickness of the leather used. I recently got a USA Kilts kilt and I don't care for the uber-thick stiff straps. It's difficult to shove the left-side one through the slot in the kilt, and difficult to shove all of them through the buckles. It makes dressing and adjusting the kilt more difficult than it ought to be. I've worked the leather to make the straps more flexible, though they're still far too thick.

I'm planning on switching them out for normal straps. I might make my own, from brown leather, just to be different.

[GG]

Congratulations to your new kilt. I really like the tartan - being in favor of bluish tartans in general.

[KennethSime]

Congratulations to your new kilt. I really like the tartan - being in favor of bluish tartans in general.

Thank you, sir!

[KennethSime]

I have a quirky and much-flawed book

World Tartans
Iain Zaczek
2001, Collins & Brown, London

which has a tartan that looks roughly similar called Niagara Falls which the author calls "a modern trade tartan".

The differences between the tartan they show and your kilt could be just another of numerous errors in that book. (In some cases the computer-generated illustration has errors, in other cases it's a different tartan altogether.)

I actually had to do a search through the tartan register prior to ordering this kilt, as there was no digital representation available at the time of ordering, but was up against the sale deadline (and my bedtime).

I figured it was either the Niagara Falls Tartan or the Niagara Region tartan, and for the price I'd be happy either way. According to the Register, Niagara Falls is a color variation on the Maple Leaf tartan dating form the 1964, and the Niagara Region tartan is a District tartan designed by Lochcarron in 2007. Once B&S confirmed for me that the tartan cloth came from Lochcarron, I was pretty sure it was the Niagara Region tartan.

About colours to co-ordinate with that kilt, I've seen photos of Glen wearing brown and/or tan tweed jackets which would probably look fantastic. The colour-theory behind it is that blue and orange are complimentary colours, brown being a very dull orange.

My old Pipe Major wore a lovely brilliant turquoise Anderson tartan kilt and he invariably wore blue jackets with it. He even had a bespoke Royal Blue Argyll jacket & waistcoat. It was a bit too much blue, seemed to me.

I had never thought of brown as a dull orange, but it makes a lot of sense - you get brown by mixing complementary colors, right? I have a pair of oatmeal-colored hose which I haven't worn much, but I think will pair nicely with this tartan.

About the leather straps on kilts, I've been wearing kilts for 45 years and I've got very used to the usual thickness of the leather used. I recently got a USA Kilts kilt and I don't care for the uber-thick stiff straps. It's difficult to shove the left-side one through the slot in the kilt, and difficult to shove all of them through the buckles. It makes dressing and adjusting the kilt more difficult than it ought to be. I've worked the leather to make the straps more flexible, though they're still far too thick.

I'm planning on switching them out for normal straps. I might make my own, from brown leather, just to be different.

I think the thick straps might be nice on a 16oz 8-yard, but they do seem a bit overkill on a 5-yard. It's a bit of a straw man sales technique, solving a problem where one doesn't really exist in the first place. I think brown straps would look very nice on your tweed kilt - nice and subdued.

[OC Richard]

Yes the register does have the Niagara Falls tartan shown in the Zaczek book.

The one as seen here https://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/ta...Image?ref=3132 is much nicer than the one in the book, the book as usual having some colour errors.

About the orange > brown thing, hopefully this "color picker" will be active when you click on it.

You can move the slider across the bottom to get orange, then move the white circle around in the box which gives you all the possible tints, shades, and intensities. A very dull orange is brown.

https://www.google.com/search?q=colo..._AUoAHoECAEQAA

Here's a crude snapshot of a brown

[RichardtheLarge]

This looks great to me. I would suggest wearing a belt or a vest with this outfit—The belts from McRostie are very good quality.

[KennethSime]

This looks great to me. I would suggest wearing a belt or a vest with this outfit—The belts from McRostie are very good quality.

Good point, I think a belt would've helped complete this outfit. I didn't feel the need for the belt because this kilt fits so well, and it was too warm for a waistcoat. But I do have a matching khaki pigskin belt from WE Scott & Son in Edinburgh that I like very much.