New Kilt (new to me)

[kilted2000]

That's one of my favorite tartans!

[OC Richard]

It's so strange for a Scottish-made kilt to just have a label saying "42".

As I had mentioned the hip (or "breech") measurement is crucial too, because two men with the same waist size might have quite different hip sizes, meaning that the entirety of the pleated section has to be made differently on the two kilts.

So let's say Gent 1 is straight up-and-down, 42 waist and 42 hips.

But Gent 2 has a relatively narrow waist and wide hips, 42 waist and 48 hips.

The two kilts for these Gents will be made quite differently, for Gent 1 with more or less parallel pleats and for Gent 2 with each pleat having a noticeable taper made into it.

The fact that the front aprons are flat fabric (no darts) means that Gent 2's 6-inch waist-to-hip differential has to be created in the pleats.

Add to that the fact that a kilt's length is crucial and hardly one-size-fits-all.

So your label only giving one-third of the necessary size information is puzzling.

As I had said civilian kilts, being bespoke, rarely have sewn-in size labels.

But military kilts do, like this:



Note that rather than giving the kilt's length they give the height of the wearer.

I can't recall seeing a civilian kiltmaker use height like that.

[Pleater]

I have some kilts with straps at the waist and they and the buckles are fixed on (through the same holes each time) using a silky button thread after being removed when the kilt is washed.
The oldest one might have had the straps off a dozen times, and seems none the worse for it. I give the leather bits, the strap and the fold over holding the buckle a wipe over and a polish whilst they are separate - mainly because it is not going to be necessary to keep the fabric from getting oil or polish on it, which can cause a stain over time.

Anne the Pleater

[Ninehostages]

It's so strange for a Scottish-made kilt to just have a label saying "42".

As I had mentioned the hip (or "breech") measurement is crucial too, because two men with the same waist size might have quite different hip sizes, meaning that the entirety of the pleated section has to be made differently on the two kilts.

So let's say Gent 1 is straight up-and-down, 42 waist and 42 hips.

But Gent 2 has a relatively narrow waist and wide hips, 42 waist and 48 hips.

The two kilts for these Gents will be made quite differently, for Gent 1 with more or less parallel pleats and for Gent 2 with each pleat having a noticeable taper made into it.

The fact that the front aprons are flat fabric (no darts) means that Gent 2's 6-inch waist-to-hip differential has to be created in the pleats.

Add to that the fact that a kilt's length is crucial and hardly one-size-fits-all.

So your label only giving one-third of the necessary size information is puzzling.

As I had said civilian kilts, being bespoke, rarely have sewn-in size labels.

But military kilts do, like this:



Note that rather than giving the kilt's length they give the height of the wearer.

I can't recall seeing a civilian kiltmaker use height like that.

Imagine ... a NATO number. I never would have thought ...
Even our ash trays had NATO numbers stamped on them.

[OC Richard]

Yep, everything hat NATO numbers, I bought a military dirk from the 1980s that was stamped both with the MOD Broad Arrow and a NATO number.

That kilt is pre-metric though, at some point the British military switched to metric for their kilt sizings.

Here in 1957 it's still inches.



But here it's metric (I don't know the specifics of the contract and the other codes so I don't know the date)

[Tobus]

My 1993 Kilt No. 2 (Queen's Own Highlanders) has the same type of info on the tag, and of course is in metric by that point. Interestingly, it does have the NATO stock number but doesn't label it as such. It just shows the number. I never knew that was the NATO stock number until now! Same with the contract number. I always wondered what that number was supposed to be.

[OC Richard]

Sorry it's veering offtopic but that's interesting Tobus that the kilts were no longer made by Thomas Gordon.

I've seen a great many old British army and Canadian army kilts made by Thomas Gordon, so I wondered about the change to Hector Russell.

So I went on the Thomas Gordon website, and they seem to only be selling fabric now. I wonder when, and why, they stopped making Highland Dress.

Generations of soldiers, and civilian pipe band members, wore doublets, kilts, plaids, and feather bonnets by Thomas Gordon.

(Also offtopic, but when that kilt was made, 1993, was only a year before the Queens Own Highlanders ceased to exist. In 1994 they were amalgamated with the Gordon Highlanders.)

BTW what tartan is that QOH kilt? The regiment wore Seaforth MacKenzie, except for the Pipes & Drums who wore Erracht Cameron.

[Tobus]

BTW what tartan is that QOH kilt? The regiment wore Seaforth MacKenzie, except for the Pipes & Drums who wore Erracht Cameron.

It's MacKenzie.