semi-formal, what did it cost me?

[Alan H]

OK, when I got started in this I really wanted a semi-formal getup. You know, Argyll tweed jacket, wool kilt and so on. I can't afford that, seeing as I'm pretty much a newbie to kilt-wearing, so I did what I could with what I could afford. Last night I went to my wife's symphony (I used to play in it, too) in kilt, jacket and tie. The jacket is a Saint Vincent De Paul special that I spent 8 hours adapting to a kilt jacket. Someday I'll post a picture of this getup, but I thought folks would be interested in my "semi formal" getup and what it cost me.

Sporran off of ebay white hair, "leather cantle" (riiight) , three chrome-topped tassels:
$35
Stillwater Standard Black Watch Kilt
$75
Locharron hose, bought at Highland Games, full price from Kilt & Thistle
$20...(BTW, these are MUCH, much nicer than the "buget hose" I bought off of ebay; easily worth the few dollars difference in price)
Locharron Flashes, same as above
$11
Belt from neighborhood garage sale. It's a beauty, full leather, just gorgeous, though it's not a "real" kilt belt. I got it for
$1.00
Celtic Buckle, round, pewter, kilt-buckle sized, but not a normal rectangular-tyled formal kilt belt...off of ebay.
$13
Black Dress shoes...scored a deal at Big 5 sports. These are very nice Rockport dress shoes.
$25
Plain blue tie, a Mervyn's special.
$14
Jacket, a tweedy Woolrich sportcoat that I altered myself. This is a VERY nice, fully lined wool jacket.
$7.50... yes, you read that right $7.50
White shirt, I had already. Doesn't everyone? If you bought a new one at Mervyn's you could get it for around $25

TOTAL (not including the white shirt, since I had one already): $201.50

...plus some shipping from ebay sellers. Call it $215

I got a lot of compliments, many questions and two women who just HAD to talk to me at length about kilts, Scotland, exactly whether the kilt was too cold in the winter and so on. The Mrs. was witness to a lot of it and she thinks it's funny.

This getup won't cut the mustard on the Royal Mile, and even at a post-Games ceilidh here in the USA with a lot of knowledgeable folks it's just a bit "not quite right" . However, here on the San Francisco Peninsula, it does very well in semi-formal occasions with regular folks and I'm very comfortable in it.

And so is my pocketbook.