Kilts

A kilt is a knee length garment that wraps from left to right around the body, fastens with leather straps and buckles at the side, and carries deep pleats across the back while the front stays flat in two overlapping aprons. That flat front is the tell. A wrapped skirt has no pleating structure and no buckles, and it fastens the opposite way.

A traditional tartan kilt, if you want one kilt that covers everything. It works at a wedding, a funeral, a games field and a Burns supper, and it will still be correct in twenty years because the design has not moved in two centuries. Buy a utility kilt first only if you already know you want it for daily wear or work rather than for occasions.

Yes. Nobody is checking. Clan tartans carry family meaning for the people who claim them, but there is no rule barring anyone from wearing a sett, and Scots have been perfectly relaxed about this for a long time. If you would rather avoid the question, choose a district tartan or a universal design that belongs to no single family.

Three numbers. Waist taken at the navel over a shirt, not where your trousers sit. Hip at the widest point. Length from that waist point straight down to the middle of the kneecap. Use a tailor's tape and get a second person to read it, because self measuring at the hip is where most errors happen. Kilt waists usually run one to two inches larger than trouser size.

The full outfit is a sporran, a kilt belt and buckle, hose with flashes, ghillie brogues, a kilt pin and a jacket. For casual wear you can drop most of it and wear boots with a plain shirt. For anything formal you want the lot, and a fly plaid and brooch on top for evening. See how it goes together in kilt outfits.

Tartan kilts use premium acrylic woven to the sett, which holds a pleat sharply and keeps colour through years of wear without the itch or the weight of heavier traditional cloth. Utility kilts are 100% cotton. Leather kilts are 100% genuine leather. The material is stated on every product page, so you always know what you are buying.

Both. Over five thousand registered setts are already in the library, and our free tartan designer lets you create a new one from scratch. We handle registration with The Scottish Register of Tartans and weave the cloth at our own mill, so it is one supplier rather than three.

Waist at the navel over a shirt, hip at the widest point, and length from that waist point down to the middle of the kneecap. The measuring guide walks through each one with diagrams. Do not order to your trouser size, since kilts sit higher and jeans are vanity sized.

Whatever you are comfortable in. The regimental idea is folklore rather than rule, and it comes from a handful of military regiments, not from Highland dress generally. Most modern wearers use boxer briefs or compression shorts, particularly at a games day or anywhere windy. Nobody is checking and there is no correct answer.

Kneel on the floor with a straight back. The bottom edge of the kilt should just brush the ground. Standing, the hem should finish at the middle of your kneecap. Covering the kneecap entirely is too long and reads as a skirt. Well above the knee is too short.