Tattersall and striped ties

[Jock Scot]

I think that we need to remember that "matching" club, college, regimental ties to anything is not really Scottish or even UK and possibly a Commonwealth thing to do. Rather like one's tartan it is the one we have. OK we can change the hue, or wear "our" dress tartan if we want but basically the tartan does not change. Likewise the tie, "our" Gin and Tonics tie, or Oxbridge tie does not change so regardless of almost anything the tie is worn with no regard to it matching.

In passing the Army Benevolent Fund(ABF) tie that some of you wear does go with almost anything and no, you will not upset any "Old Soldier" by wearing it. Well done Downunder for modelling it so well in your first picture.

Tattersall shirts give you two looks in one. From ten feet away they take on a basic white or cream, on getting closer the pattern becomes more identifiable and interesting.The same goes with Gingham pattern shirts too. As long as you don't head too far towards the "lumberjack" patterns almost any tattersall shirt with almost any striped regimental type tie will work when seen through UK eyes.

It is, I suppose, a state of mind, nurtured over many many decades(actually probably almost as far back as the tartan revival of the early 1800's) that we accept the colour combinations that are fairly common here. It seems that you chaps outwith this mindset have difficulty with this way of thinking, but there are some who have been rather more adventurous with colour combinations on this website and have found it quite liberating.

There are somewhere, several threads of many pages long on this subject lurking in the past posts that you may find helpful.