Graham,

My first casual, non-traditional, non-tartan kilt was a Utilikilt. Actually, it was a Workman's model in the now discontinued 'Standard' style, pleated all around and with a zipper fly (a style I liked so much that I bought three more of them before the axe fell!). Currently, I have eleven Utilikilts and love them - at least the nine that I can still get into! Being Utilikilts there is no means of making those minor adjustments at the waist necessary at certain times in one's life!

When those kilts were still new to me, I'd press them after every wearing because I did not like the crumpled look. Now, I let them go until I can no longer bear to appear looking such a 'casual' mess. As others have stated, Utilikilts are not designed for a smart look, they are work clothes and great to wear when one might otherwise be concerned for the cleanliness of a traditional kilt. My most recent Utilikilt, a Caramel Workman's, is reserved solely for gardening and car-washing - I wouldn't dream of wearing it away from the house/garden although it is newish.

As for the length: yes, there is the matter of them being off the peg and therefore coming in a fixed range of lengths, and there is the matter of camera angles. However, over the past six or seven years, I have become very much aware that many American 'newbies' to kilt wearing, especially those opting for the casual kilt (such as Utilikilts), select the below-the-knee length. This is very evident in so many of the photos we have seen, and I noticed it on my American travels in 2003. Whether this has any connection with the ghastly so-called shorts that people wear nowadays, or whether it is some sort of attempt at modesty, I have no idea. I do know, however, that that length of kilt has a distinctly 'skirty' look to it - you would not catch me wearing one of such a length!