untraditional traditions

[Whidbey78]

Actually, after shortening a jacket a little too much while going for something like I saw Matt Newsome wearing in a posting here I toyed with the idea of adding about two inches to the bottom with a button flap like an Ike. Basically, I was working toward a hybrid Ike and Crail. Maybe I'll dig it out of the closet and give it a shot.

As for the main topic of this thread, I am not enough of an international fashion watcher to say what is uniquely American or a new traditional style in regards to kilt wear. All I can tell you is how I do it, and see a few others do it. Other than modified jackets and kilt hose and flashes, I simply replace p@nts with a kilt. I let it stand on its own as opposed to making a big spectacle of wearing it(not that others do, but some seem to give that impression). The other thing that is somewhat unique to my part of the US is that we tend to avoid "bling", with the exception of rodeo buckles, so I have a tendancy to use antique and pewter finished buckles, buttons, etc, and keep things relatively simple and understated. Anyway, that's my two cents.

[Zardoz]

When you look at kilt jackets, like argylls or crails etc, you are basically looking at the same jackets. They generally all have the same military inspired epaletts, pointy three button pocket flaps, chrome or bone buttons, black barathea or woolly tweeds, etc. basically just different cuffs.

I have for a few years thought that I would like a kilt cut jacket and waistcoat, without all those details, just plain pocket flaps, no epaletts, straight cuffs, self colored buttons. Design-wise this is not a new idea or anything, it's pretty much like the ones you see Prince Charles wear, or really what you see when folks modify a suit jacket for kiltwear.

Fabric wise, I'd think similar colors to what we're used to in kilt jackets, only in suiting fabric weights suited to American climates.

[CMcG]

What Zardoz is describing sounds like Steve Ashton's (Freedom Kilts) Kilt Kut Suit Coat:

[Zardoz]

What Zardoz is describing sounds like Steve Ashton's (Freedom Kilts) Kilt Kut Suit Coat:

That's close enough, if I had that setup in Charcoal, Medium Grey, and Blue, I'd be all set! (if the price was reasonable, and I had any money!)

[Whidbey78]

That's what I've been looking for. The one, or sometimes two button jacket one winds up with seem so cookie-cutter to me. With the waistcoat that would fit the bill for anything I ever do.

[Good Egg]

Damn fine looking jacket and weskit but not especially American, I don't think you'd have much trouble finding that in Scotland. I had also thought of the Ike Jacket but dismissed it because it was based on the British BD blouse but actually it is quite distinctly American.

My design for a Western/Argyle Hybrid:



and the a photo of the jacket it is based on:

[macwilkin]

Damn fine looking jacket and weskit but not especially American, I don't think you'd have much trouble finding that in Scotland. I had also thought of the Ike Jacket but dismissed it because it was based on the British BD blouse but actually it is quite distinctly American.

My design for a Western/Argyle Hybrid:



and the a photo of the jacket it is based on:

Respectfully though: I wouldn't say this is a distinctly "American" style. Generally this sort of jacket is found in the Western United States more than anywhere else, but I it doesn't scream "American" at me.

T.

[CMcG]

I found a couple images that I'm including here for a touch of humour. Perhaps not a universally American style but definitely a Western one.

[davidlpope]

Damn fine looking jacket and weskit but not especially American, I don't think you'd have much trouble finding that in Scotland. I had also thought of the Ike Jacket but dismissed it because it was based on the British BD blouse but actually it is quite distinctly American.

My design for a Western/Argyle Hybrid:



and the a photo of the jacket it is based on:

As Todd has pointed out, this is not an "American" jacket that would be universal to all those living in the US; it is a "Western" jacket that would perhaps work for a kilted cowboy in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, etc.

Likewise, I can imagine a blue and white seersucker kilt jacket for those of us who are blessed to be Southerners, but I doubt that Americans in other areas of the nation would welcome it as their own. The problem is that the US is a large country with strong regional identities. As such, I don't think that any one regional identity would be adopted by the other regions in the same way that Traditional Highland Civilian Dress (THCD) has been adopted by the rest of Scotland as national attire.

Additionally, for some of us, kilt-wearing is a means of signifying that we are Americans of Scottish descent, not Americans in a general sense. Given that, I don't know that there's a desire for "uniquely American" items of highland dress beyond state, military, or American tartans.

David

[macwilkin]

As Todd has pointed out, this is not an "American" jacket that would be universal to all those living in the US; it is a "Western" jacket that would perhaps work for a kilted cowboy in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Wyoming, etc.

Likewise, I can imagine a blue and white seersucker kilt jacket for those of us who are blessed to be Southerners, but I doubt that Americans in other areas of the nation would welcome it as their own. The problem is that the US is a large country with strong regional identities. As such, I don't think that any one regional identity would be adopted by the other regions in the same way that Traditional Highland Civilian Dress (THCD) has been adopted by the rest of Scotland as national attire.

Additionally, for some of us, kilt-wearing is a means of signifying that we are Americans of Scottish descent, not Americans in a general sense. Given that, I don't know that there's a desire for "uniquely American" items of highland dress beyond state, military, or American tartans.

David

To add to David's excellent point: I could certainly see a regional variation, such as an Arizona kiltie wearing a bolo tie with their day attire in place of a standard necktie, since it is the "official neckwear" of Arizona.

T.