I picked up a second-hand P.C. What else do I need to buy to make the outfit work?

[OC Richard]

I got lucky this weekend, and ended up with a Prince Charlie in my size for $56 total.

That's super! A man after my own heart.

BTW I think that's around what I paid for my first Prince Charlie. I was 19 or 20, walking around a Highland Games, and there was a vendor whose promised tables hadn't arrived, so his merchandise was laid out on the dirt. There, filthy on the underside, and with a clear shoe-print on the upper side, was an otherwise fine-looking Prince Charlie, which fit me perfectly. Also in the dirt was a seal-skin and silver-plate Prince Charlie style Evening sporran. I bought both for around $100 as I recall.

the buttons are rather cheap (seem to be chromed plastic or maybe pewter).

The buttons on standard Scottish-made Evening jackets are nearly always the same, chrome plated metal, but which metal I don't know, perhaps brass.

I will likely wear this jacket once per year or less - I've really only had one occasion to wear a tux so far in my life, and don't foresee many more...

For sure California is that way! However back in my University days I wore my Prince Charlie quite a bit: my girlfriend was a concert violinist and we were always attending posh events. And being a piper, in the days before The Coming Of The Black Argyll, I often wore the Prince Charlie for gigs.

I'll need a wing-collar tux shirt...

Do I need a bowtie? ...not a fan of the rouche tie...

I really don't want to buy a fur sporran... If you weren't going to go for a fur or sealskin sporran, what would you go for?

Can I just wear some nice HoC Lewis hose? I think diced hose or Argyll hose are very nice, but I don't think I'll be spending $200 on them anytime soon.

This gets into the question of traditional Highland Dress, what looks proper to someone steeped in it, and whether or not you want to follow those notions.

I always like knowing about the history and milieu of things, and as such I've collected quite a few things about Victorian and 20th century Highland Dress.

The first thing to know about the Prince Charlie (or "coatee" as it was originally and correctly called) is that it's a 20th century invention, quite early in the century. In 1910 it was being called "new" and in the 1930s it was still spoken of as something suitable for fashionable slim young men, and not suited for mature gents.

From the get-go the Prince Charlie was treated like the existing Evening jacket, the Doublet, made in black, blue, and green, and worn with the Evening Dress of the early 20th century:

-bow tie or lace jabot

-low-cut 3-button waistcoat selfcoloured, tartan, red, or buff

-Evening sporran which meant either seal-skin or long white hair, with silver top

-tartan or diced hose

-buckled shoes.

Here, on the left, are two illustrations of the then relatively new Prince Charlie in a 1930s catalogue. Note that the Prince Charlie is a bit more dressed-up that we're used to, by one gent, with lace jabot, tartan waistcoat, and castellated hose.

The other gent is wearing the Prince Charlie as it was usually worn, with black bow tie and ordinary diced or tartan hose.



At the time the Prince Charlie was introduced, and through most of the 20th century, it wouldn't have been considered proper to wear a long tie, or go sans waistcoat, or wear a leather sporran, or plain hose, or ghillies (unless fitted with buckles).

So that's the background, the tradition. Personally I think buckled shoes, tartan or diced hose, and an Evening sporran are called for with Evening Dress.

But how do life-long kilt-wearers in Scotland wear the Prince Charlie nowadays? Let's see. Here's a group of men, I believe all of them Scottish born and raised, all of them kilt-wearers since they were young lads.

Notice that buckled shoes are gone, and half of the men are wearing plain hose. However all are wearing black bow ties and the traditionally called-for Evening sporrans.

(The man wearing buckled shoes is wearing the Doublet, the older form of Evening jacket.)

There's another thing your eye might catch: one man is wearing the higher-cut 5-button waistcoat generally worn with the Argyll jacket. (He has an MBE he can dress how he likes!)



I mentioned the Prince Charlie coatee and Prince Charlie sporran I bought in the dirt as a youngster. Here I am wearing my new finery! That was my perception, as a relatively new kilt-wearer in the late 1970s, of how the Prince Charlie should be worn.



Were I to wear a Prince Charlie now, it would be something like this. (I don't have the proper waistcoat.)