Interesting letter

[David Dubh]

Welcome back Jock hope all is well.
I prefer my kilt to top of knee or slightly above. I have been told that the kilt should hang to top of knee to mid knee.I ahve a friend from Inverness who claims that most people wear their stockings too high like footballers. I think that his observation is a combination of low kilts and high stockings. If you don't show enough leg you may as well wear pants

[dowofbuchanan]

well i wear my kilt above the knee ... but then again i may pull it down to mid knee sometimes as i tattooed my kneecap and its not always appropriate however to answer an unasked question the tattoo says dubh which is the gaelic of my last name and i did it as a stick tat lefthanded and upside down

[Highlander31]

Welcome back Jock. Good to see you posting again.

I prefer to wear my kilt at the top of the knee and the hose to be no higher than the top of the calf, which shows approximately three and a half to four inches of leg.

However, when I wear my greatkilt, I wear it one to two inches above the knee, as was the custom in Rob Roy's day.

[mbhandy]

with the groom(smen) wearing their kilts too low, is the big white expanse of shirt showing below their equally poor fitting Prince Charlie! You would think that would be enough indication for them to pull it up!

Well PLUMBERS Don't.:butt:

All of mine fit towards the top of the knee except for my Buchanan Modern It needs to be shortened. Got it on ebay for a good price and have not gotten it fixed.

MrBill

[ccga3359]

Jock forgive me if already mentioned, but out of curiosity, and as acknowledged resident traditional expert, at what length do you wear your kilt. Might I add that of many pictures I've seen kilted highland regiments that they don't neccasarily follow this rule, again it could be camera angle. For the record I had my Newsome fall to above the knee and I to enjoy it that way.

[O'Callaghan]

I'm 5'8" with short legs for my height, and half my kilts are off the peg. They are longer than I would like, but that's how they come. I also think there are variations in whether the waistband (the 'rise') is counted as part of the 'drop', so even if you specify length you don't really know what you will get.

[dfmacliam]

I like the look of a kilt that fits somewhere in between the mid knee cap and above it... What I do not care for.. is seeing a kilt worn well above the knee.. say for example of 3-4 inches.. I have seen them higher, and to me it looks plain wrong... as for the opposite, a kilt too long looks bad too..
When I measured for my kilt, with Freedom Kilts, Steve guided me in the measuring process and it is measured to the proper length. Tailored clothing, or even partially tailored (hemmed to length slacks for example) are fit to fashion, while off the peg clothing is just set at generic lengths..These days, we are finding ourselves wearing off the peg clothing while very infrequently getting that custom tailored fit.. Be it in kilts or everyday wear..There was a time.. most of our clothing was tailored fit.
Kilting options are growing with the new marketing angles, with kilts becoming cheaper. What was once only purchased for weddings or special occassions, it is now becoming readily accessable for everyones budget, and worn more frequently, in a casual setting. A $50.00 off the peg kilt, is going to fit, like a $9.00 pair of jeans.. while a kilt made to measure, will fit as a tailored made pair of slacks..
This is just my opinion, but i feel its relevent..

[Nighthawk]

You must walk around in hurricanes! I've really never had a "modesty issue" when wearing the kilt in wind.

In Colorado, we get some pretty nasty wind storms- especially in the spring. I left my sunroof open a couple days ago when we had a storm blow through. I had to go cover it with a tarp because of the huge chunks of ice falling from the sky- they had clogged the tracks by the time I got outside. The mountains produce their own special weather patterns. It can get rather blustery here at times. But I do have to say that my 16 oz kilts handle wind a lot better than my lighter weight ones. I prefer the lighter weigh, though, because when it's windy and hailing here, it's blisteringly hot! Or snowing... So the light weight is great for the heat and wind, the heavy is great for the cold and wind... Wow, we have a lot of wind here... I never really gave that much thought! Yeah, I think I'll stick with my mid knee kilts.

[Stravaiger]

I do a lot of hill walking in my kilts, and I find that about an inch and a half above the knee is most comfortable for me. Any lower and it tends to drag/chafe when wet. More of an issue with my 18oz MOD Black Watch since the weight of the pleats at the back tends to make the rear of the kilt ride slightly lower.

[freddie]

I always thought that the kilt should reach to the centre of the kneecap and have always measured for my kilts accordingly. I'm 6ft 1inch and the measurement from the peak of my hip bone (if I can find it!) to the centre of my knee is 23.5 inches. So adding a 2inch rise this gives a total length of 25.5inches. This measurement was confirmed by a Scottish kiltmaker a couple of years ago. However when I bought my first 24inch length 'casual' kilt I caught my reflection and it seemed to be just the right length (top of the kneecap). In fact all my 'proper' kilts seem a bit long in photographs now. I've just bought an ex hire Royal Stewart Lochcarron Strome kilt off ebay which is 24inches long and this looks just right as well. I find that if I wear my kilt with the back of the waistband in the small of my back, just below my rib cage at the rear which seems slightly lower than the ribs at the front it's most comfortable and the kilt reaches just to the top of my kneecap. In fact I wore one of my other kilts to a party the other night and it felt too long as I was conscious of the material resting on my kneecap. Obviously from wearing the shorter 24inch length kilts I've got used to them. Of course if I hitch them up to my ribs they sit well above my knee, but then they soon drop to the comfortable level which is top of the knee. The only drawback is (as another xmarker once pointed out) that having a bit of a tummy on me there isn't a lot of material to sit on when I sit down in the shorter kilt !