Where do you wear your kilt?

[The Wizard of BC]

To properly answer your question I would need to ask you one in return.

When and how is your kilt made?

Prior to about 10 years ago almost all kilts were made in the traditional style. The top strap was designed to snug into your natural waist.

To find your natural waist - open your hand and place your thumb at your side just under your ribs. Then bend into your thumb. Do you feel a hollow there? That is your natural waist.

A traditional style kilt tapers down from your hips to your waist, This is where the top strap is. The kilt then flares back out. The smallest part of the kilt is at the top strap.

Here is my traditional style kilt.



You can plainly see that it is smallest at the level of the top strap. That will cinch into your natural waist. This kilt is designed to be worn up at about kidney level. The very top of kilt covers my short ribs in the back.

Another feature of a kilt is that the bottom of the Fell, or the bottom of where the pleats are sewn down, should be at the level of the widest part of your hips and butt.

If your kilt is made this way, and you wear the top straps at your natural waist, the hem should be right at the top of your kneecap.

(The old thing about kneeling on the floor is actually an old kiltmaker trick. As the top of the kilt is 2" above the top strap,,,, if you have the customer kneel and measure from the natural waist down to the floor,,,,,then make that the total length of the kilt,,,because the top strap is 2" lower it will raise the whole kilt up 2" and the hem will be at the top of the kneecap.)

About 10 years ago everything changed in the kilt world. With the pressures of high labor cost combined with the influx of less expensive kilts from the middle east, and factor in the Utilikilt that was designed to be worn down at low rise, kiltmakers have been finding ways to cut costs to stay competitive.
It is not uncommon for the kilts coming out of some of the most respected named houses, not to have the flair above the top strap.

Lacking this flair the smallest part of the kilt is now up at the waistband. This is now the part that will try to fit into the natural waist. So the entire kilt falls down about two inches.

This causes the bottom of the Fell to be below the butt causing the stage curtain effect you see in many kilts. It also causes the hem to drop to the middle or bottom of the knee.

As kiltmakers we have customers come in every day who do not know that the kilt is an older style garment and is supposed to be worn up high. They only know blue jeans so assume that a kilt is worn at the same level.



So, do you have a traditional style kilt?

To see what type of kilt you have and how it should be worn, fold the kilt in half so it looks like the pic above. Does your kilt have the flair? If so put the kilt on and cinch the top straps into your natural waist.

Then, reach around back and slide your hand up the pleats till you reach where they are sewn down. Is this at the same level as the the widest part of your butt? If it is, your kilt is at the height it was designed to fit.
(BTW this widest part of the hips and butt is also right at your hip joint. Where your leg pivots at your pelvis.) (Well, if your a guy that is.)


Now that you have your kilt fitting correctly at the natural waist and Fell, kneel down in front of a full length mirror. Don't bend over. Look straight into the mirror with your back straight. Is the hem about 2" off the ground? If so you have a perfectly fitted traditional style kilt.


If you want me to try to describe how a modern kilt is different, from the ground up, from a traditional, I can, but it would be a post longer than this one.