All the kilt jackets I've owned, vintage ones, a bespoke one, and several off-the-peg ones, had the body a tad shorter than the sleeves.

The "Saxon" suits I've owned had the body somewhat longer than the sleeves.

It caught my eye, at a recent Highland Games, when I noticed a few men wearing kilt jackets which had a body somewhat longer than the sleeves.

My first thought was that these jackets were conversions. But I studied them as best I could (without seeming creepy) and they had every appearance of being high quality Scottish made Argyll jackets, identical in every way to the Argyll jackets I've owned and seen for decades, but with a longer body.

One of the guys wearing these long Argyll jackets was a Scottish guy visiting here. His jacket was obviously a high quality tweed Argyll, but the body was a few inches longer than the sleeves.

Anybody know anything about this? Is this a recent trend?

I went back over my old images and it seems to me that kilt jacket length has been remarkably stable over the last 150 years, the body being the same length as the sleeves or a tad bit shorter.

Here's c1869



The famous piper John Wilson in 1927



The piper Archie MacPhedran in the 1950s



a kilted wedding in the 1950s (notice no black jacket!!!)



More recently, the piper Malcolm McRae



and a recently displayed jacket



And what about the Army