Quote Originally Posted by MacMillan of Rathdown View Post
Generally speaking, dress sporrans (as opposed to those worn with day wear Highland attire) are fur or hair. Both goat hair and horse hair sporrans are enjoying a revival, and seal skin (if you can find it in the USA) is always a good choice. What makes a dress sporran a dress sporran is the cantle-- silver or silver plated is the standard, with pewter also popular. Full mask sporrans are also a good choice, but one has to be careful that the full mask sporran isn't so large that it overpowers the rest of the outfit; with the exception of goat and horse hair sporrans, anything over six or seven inches in length is probably too long for formal wear.
Good information - especially in regards to the size of full-mask sporrans. Sporran maker, Kate Macpherson, adheres to a very traditional (regimental manner - think Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders badger sporran) way of creating her bespoke, full-mask sporrans, with the majority of them not being the 'mammoth types' one often sees here in the States.