Women in Kilts?

[Barry]

I trust that she will be going "regimental"

Slainte!

[McMurdo]

If she was really concerned about tradition she would wear a kilted skirt or anything but a uniquely male garment.

It seems pointless to go out of your way to wear a male garment when there are plenty of female options.

Women should be used to wearing mens clothes, look at how many of them are in jeans, I see this as a non issue if she wants to wear a kilt, good for her.

[SnakeEyes]

Yeah I pretty much don't care either way. She's not a man, so she's really not taking anything away from us.

[Jerry]

This has been discussed many times and been locked a few times by he mods due to heated discussion. Personally I'm against women wearing men's kilts. That said, I did give my daughter one that was too short for me. There are several companies that are making women's kilts. They can be either minis or more traditional kilts, but made for a woman's figure and fastening right over left like other women's clothing, instead of left over right like a man's kilt.

[Richland]

Women wear trousers and those were a typically, male only garment less than 100 years ago. "We still wear em'" It didn't upset the apple cart too much did it? So i think it is fine for "The future of the kilt!"

[Dirk Skene]

Like another said, except for pipers I think it not proper, but to quote Tattoobradley

...... But then, who the F. am I?

[cessna152towser]

I know a lady, aged about 55, who wears gents kilts every day, with a bandana on her head. She wears a selection of tartans, also single colour such as navy blue or black. Unfortunately she wears frilly white petticoats with them which flash in the wind or when she swings round and I just don't think this looks right at all. But that's only my personal view, others may beg to differ.

[thescot]

There's certainly nothing morally or ethically wrong with a woman wearing a kilt. Pipers do it all the time.

Problem is, they look funny! I noticed some time back that women and men are built differently (ooh la la, vive la difference!), and that difference means that if one of us wears clothing cut for the other gender, it tends to look odd. Look at a woman wearing a man's trousers some time. The . . . uh, parts, don't fit the same way in the same places. (Is it getting hot in here, or is it just me?)

If she wants to wear a kilt, tell her to go for it. No one will care any more than if she wore her father's overalls or sport coat. But she'd probably look better in a woman's kilted skirt.

It's no more important than any other matter of taste in the big scheme of things.

[PiobBear]

I've seen several women wearing kilts as part of their pipe band uniforms...nothing wrong with that...in point of fact a couple of them looked quite hot...

Ohhh yesss....some of them certainly do!

None of them are tailored to a woman's figure unless she bought her own, but on the right figure...("the burlap bag principle").

Aside from the apron buckling on the left hip (a detail few outside of this forum would pick up upon, although a story does come to mind of our current Pipe Major. It seems that when he made his first appearance at our band as a wee lad many year's ago, it was in a girl's school kilt.), and being tailored to better fit a woman's figure (a few hundred years ago I dated a lass who preferred to buy her jeans in the boy's department; not only did waist and inseam make more sense to her than the sometimes fanciful way they size women's clothing, she thought that they fit her better. I can assure you that there was absolutely nothing wrong with her...ahem; oh, never mind. A thoroughly delightful memory though!), tailored kilts are priced quite beyond the reach of most of the proletariat. If that's what she can afford so be it. Of all the things that keep me awake at night, I can't say that women in kilts ranks very high on the list.

Today's kilts started off as a military uniform, and were issued in a straightforward off-the-rack "one size fits most (or hardly any)" manner like any other uniform (except officers of means who could afford to have theirs tailor made). It would seem to me that Stillwaters, et al. are quite in keeping with that tradition.

[Barb T]

It is cut for the male hips, which are slim and narrow compaired to a woman's, which must be rounded and wide. A kilt doesn't fit a women's hips well, hence it doesn't lay right. Women have the option in the kilted skirt, which is made for our hips.
Sorcha

Actually, it is perfectly possible to make a very well-fitting trad kilt that is shaped for a woman's hips (see first image below). In fact, you use the same method to shape a kilt skirt as to shape a traditional kilt, so that's not a valid argument for a woman to wear a kilt skirt instead of a kilt. I've made traditional kilts for female pipers and dancers where the waist/hip differential has been as much as 16" (26" waist, 42" hips). An athletic man (with a flat tummy and nicely-developed bun muscles) typically has a waist-hip differential of 8-9" (see for example, the second photo below). So, in fact, even men can't be fit by a cylindrical kilt, and the pleats have to taper from hips to waist. The waist/hip differential drops to zero when guys have a "bit of a corporation".

Barb T.