Annoying Crossbelt Questions

[OC Richard]

In looking over my vintage photos it quickly became apparent that very few photos show the end of the crossbelt! Because most photos aren't taken from that side of a piper, or if they are, the piper's pipes are hiding that area. But here's one



And you can see that the end of the "V" goes to around the bottom of the jacket's Inverness skirt.

About it being loose, the thing is with that so-called "military piper's dress" (which was actually introduced into the army in the 1840s from the civilian world) is that it has a lot of potentially moving parts: the waistbelt, the crossbelt, the full plaid; and for everything to look neat and even, everything has to be tight.

For the crossbelt it means having the crossbelt under the waistbelt, and the waistbelt tight, to keep the crossbelt behaving.

In the 19th century the same uniform was worn, but everything tended to look sloppier at times: crossbelt looser and drooping, the full plaid not with pressed-in pleats as today, but simply gathered or bunched, and the plaid not wrapped tightly around the body as today, but somewhat loose and droopy.

Yes vintage crossbelts and some modern high-end crossbelts which are traditionally made will have a bit of adjustment. For larger adjustment the belt itself has to be made in different lengths. This is because the tip can't just be anywhere, but (for a neat proper look) should end a bit above the waistbelt. It looks bad if the tip is too low, covering the waistbelt, or too high. There should be nice spacing, with the crossbelt buckle between the top of the plaid and the epaulette, and the keeper and tip of the crossbelt fairly evenly spaced between the bottom edge of the plaid and the waistbelt, if the crossbelt is to be worn under the plaid. If the crossbelt is to be worn over the plaid as with the Argylls PM above (this varies from regiment to regiment) it looks best to have fairly even spacing across the chest of the three bits of hardware. Note that the Argylls PM above has two badges above the buckle meaning that the buckle needs to be lower than it would be on a crossbelt lacking those badges.

Here are Scots Guards pipers back in the day; you can see the gathered/bunched plaids and the fairly even spacing of the crossbelt hardware, in this case the plaid going over the crossbelt (the guy on the right, a bit taller, is wearing a crossbelt that's too short for him)



Here's a modern Scots Guards PM and you can see the difference with the plaid, it now having pressed-in pleats and worn more tightly. You can also see the nice spacing of the crossbelt hardware.



Being tall and somewhat rotund, I had to order a special-made extra-long crossbelt. I ordered it plain so that I could cut it and secure the hardware in the necessary places for the neat look I wanted.

If you're shorter than your crossbelt was intended for you will probably end up with either the end "V" going too low and/or the tip going too low and covering your waistbelt.

If so you will need to remove the tip, cut the end shorter, and attach the tip to the new end you've created.