Waist: high or jeans

[Scottish Rock]

My view is that kilts ought to be worn at the natural waist, not the hips.

I'm okay with wearing it somewhat higher than the hips. I already mentioned this when I posted a picture of myself with a towel acting as a make shift kilt. But I really do not want the kilt any higher than what is show in that picture. I believe the waistline I'm after would be called a mid waist.

I've read and watched a lot since my previous post, including an entire series on how to make a kilt by Robert MacDonald on YouTube.

What I found interesting is that Robert actually measures at the natural waist (or in fact wherever the client wants to wear his kilt if I remember correctly) and uses that for the top of the kilt, with the straps 2 or 2.5 inches below that. And that's for military style kilts. He does point out that this deviates from how kilts, especially military style, were traditionally made with the straps in the (anatomical) waist and a rise of as much as 4 inches above that for military kilts. He pretty much only does bespoke so he does it pretty much however the client wants it.

I'm pretty sure that I would be very happy with a kilt made by him but I'm equally sure that it's waaaay above my budget. I always fall into the trap of wanting the best but I really cannot justify spending that much on a kilt so I have to resist that urge and manage my expectations with a lower priced (but still made to measure) kilt.

I sent two emails to usakilts asking what the Rise is on their kilts (top to strap) but haven't heard back from them. I guess they are just extremely busy rushing out kilts for Christmas and now New Year's Eve, it's probably the worst time of the year to ask such questions, so I hope to hear back from them in January.

What I find perplexing is that many (most?) kilt makers, as I've also read in an older post here, don't seem to ask for a measurement of the distance between where the waist was measured and the Hips, ie the height of the Fell.

Of course if you measure exactly at the anatomical waist and measure the length of the kilt to the knees exactly where the kiltmaker expects you to make those measurements, you could use the average size of the fell based on that (1/3 of the kilt if I remember corrrectly) or deduce it from the person's total height if that is given. If that sort of thing didn't work at all there would be no textile industry as we know it and everything would have to be made to measure.

However, if you take those measurements at a somewhat different height than what the kiltmaker expects, either because of error or intentionally because you want to wear it higher or lower on the waist, the Fell is going to be a bit too short or too long, resulting in a tapering that is not entirely correct and possibly the shower curtain effect.

Is it that much extra work to use an actual measurement of the fell when shaping the pattern of the kilt instead of using some fixed ratio based on the total kilt length or body height? Why is that not standard practice as would make sense to my engineering mind?

As for wearing the kilt lower than the natural waist, I understand that if the straps cinch into your natural waist there is no way for the kilt to move either up or down. However I would think that the main thing to worry about it is sliding down and as long as those strops are at a height where the body gets wider going down, it should not be possible for it to slide down, right?

As for sliding up, if the kilt is heavy enough I don't really expect that to happen all that much, but having never worn a kilt maybe I'm wrong about that? I haven't gotten around to doing that experiment with a bath towel that (I think) Steve Ashton suggested but I will do that.

I actually made a drawing of a kilt to help me understand things better, might as well post it here:

kilt measurements.png

As I understand it the Rise portion is either straight (I believe Robert McDonald does that) or tapered to get wider going up if the straps are at the anatomical waist.

The Fell portion should be tapered and this can be done (or is always done?) by tapering the pleats. I wonder if there are any dart stiches in the inner or outer apron or if anything else is done to make those tapered as well. The pleats are stitched into place vertically in this section.

The next section I have termed the 'Straight' as it's not tapered at all and the pleats are not stitched and free to move. It ends at the top of the knee cap traditionally.

Finally, Fell+Straight=Drop.

Did I get anything wrong?