Best Style Tips For Wearing Kilts And Accessories

Whether for your heritage, for an event, for a club or just for style, kilts are garments that are deeply rooted in European culture and tradition. Kilts are just like pants and dresses, in the sense that you can buy or rent one of thousands and make it your very own.

But unless you are “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, you typically need to wear some formal attire so that you can wear your kilt like a true professional. Allow us to start off with what kinds of suits and attire can go along with kilts.

Shirt And Jacket

There typically isn’t a multi-piece suit like a business suit that you can buy. Instead, shirts, jackets, kilts and other apparel are all sold separately. Even though you might already own suit jackets and shirts, they might not look all that appealing when worn with the kilt.

Dressy winged collar shirts, which you can wear with ties or bow ties and which you likely already own, are the most popular option to wear with a kilt. For more of a period-style look, you can purchase a victorian collar shirt or a ghillie shirt; the latter doesn’t require any tie.

Along with your shirt, you can choose to wear a vest, a waistcoat, or a specialty kilt jacket. You are not required to wear a jacket with your kilt, as a vest or waistcoat can also look very fashionable and professional without one.

The jacket is something that you typically buy specifically to wear your kilt, as well. The color of the jacket, and sometimes even the tie, are meant to match one of the kilt colors. These jackets, however, only come in shades of the following colors:

• Black

• Grey

• Brown

• Blue

• And Green

Hose And Shoes

Of course, you also need to dress up your legs and feet as well with that historical Scottish or highlander look. You can opt to wear your typical dress shoes and socks, but there are better options available to kilt wearers.

Kilt hose comes in the form of tall knitted socks, adding style and comfort to your feet. This hose comes in white, dark blue, muted green, grey, brown or plaid. You would typically choose a color that matches your kilt; otherwise choose a color to match your vest or jacket.

For shoes, there are brogues: European dress shoes that are black or brown on the outside and tan on the inside. These shoes have an ornate design on the toe to give them a sense of class and luxury.

Accessories

One primary issue with kilts is that their plaid designs are what make them stand out already. Kilts are most commonly in colors like the following:

• Black

• Red

• Purple

• Blue

• Green

• Or A Combination Of Colors

Kilts always implement plaid due to the design’s popularity with Scottish Highlanders in the 17th Century.

Early versions of the kilt were once just one solid color, such as white or black. These kilts, however, were phased out of popularity in favor of plaid kilts likely due to their close resemblance of a skirt or dress for women.

Because of plaid kilts, many accessories aren’t necessarily worn along with them, like beads or charms or the like, because they do not stand out on their own all that well. There are two exceptions to this, however, and they can be worn either together or separately.

Sporran And Sgian Dubh

The sporran is a pouch that is worn on the front of the kilt, serving as a large pocket. Because kilts don’t have pockets of their own, the sporran serves as an item where kilt wearer can put their belongings.

Sporrans have two different opening styles. The traditional style consists of two brass prongs at the top. When clipped together, they close the pouch. When pulled apart, the pouch is opened. Modern sporrans consist of a button clasp where there is a lid that wraps over the top of the pouch.

Traditional sporrans are made of the following materials:

• Animal Skin

• Pelt

• Hair

• Or Fur