My "newbie self"

[Dughlas mor]

Richard, thanks very much. The hose are indeed the "Lewis range" from HOC. I`ve got long legs, so I wanted something with a good turnover, they seem to be about right, and very comfortable. It`s always a struggle finding shoes for my size 16N feet, and the Romeos were a happy coincidence. My girlfriend picked them up for me because they were size 16 and on sale, a first I think. Turns out they go well with the kilt. The belt and sporran were hand made by myself. I wore the same outfit to the PNW highland games last Sunday, and everything went well. I think I was still looking pretty good in a slightly inebriated sort of way by the end of the day. [see avatar] BTW, SFU and Dowco Triumph Street, along with all the bands, were awesome.
I don`t think I`m wearing my belt so tight that it`s holding the kilt up, but I am going to experiment with not using the loops. Thanks again for the input.

Mookien, I`m afraid the "shirts with the bubbles" comment has gone right over my head.

[OC Richard]

Looks great to me!

The kilt looks perfect, and the accessories are great, the very nice (Cheviot?) hose, tooled sporran and belt, and I really like those shoes. They look very comfortable. The sporran looks roomy, which is a big thing for me. I want plenty of room for all the gear I end up carrying around.

About the loops, I'm not a fan of those and none of my kilts have them. Ditto with the 3rd strap; the kilt hangs better without it, and it serves no useful function as far as I can see. Whenever a band issues me a kilt the first thing I do is remove that 3rd strap. And I just removed the 3rd strap for a bandmate who didn't like the way the kilt hung.

BTW putting a waistbelt through the sporran loops will eventually ruin the kilt, if the waistbelt is supporting the kilt: the back of the kilt will droop, the two loops staying high, and the back of the kilt will resemble The Golden Gate Bridge. I've seen it happen many times. I would take a photo that showed this effect, but whenever I see it, it's somebody I don't know out at a Highland Games, and it would be kinda creepy for me to sneak up and take a closeup photo of their rear end.