Am I being too matchy-matchy?

[Bobby Gordon]

I had this conversation at Kinloch Anderson Kiltmakers and Highland dress in Edinburgh, and they said all the leather should match, shoes, sporran, sporran belt, kilt belt, kilt straps, the lot. That what I did with my outfit and I think it looks great, altho having said that, the back of my dress sporran is black, but you can hardly see it, and I might unpick and replace it one of these days

[Downunder Kilt]

I had this conversation at Kinloch Anderson Kiltmakers and Highland dress in Edinburgh, and they said all the leather should match, shoes, sporran, sporran belt, kilt belt, kilt straps, the lot. That what I did with my outfit and I think it looks great, altho having said that, the back of my dress sporran is black, but you can hardly see it, and I might unpick and replace it one of these days

Bobby, I find that a very strange attitude comming from Kinloch Anderson as one of their most prestigious customers, HRH Prince Charles always wear black shoes, no matter what colour sporran, belts, kilt straps that he has on when wearing highland attire

[Bobby Gordon]

Well, that's what the man said

[Downunder Kilt]

Well, thats what the man said... mind you, my then fiance didn't think think much of him, she later described him as "a complete twat!"

Like your fiance's style Bobby

[Jock Scot]

I had this conversation at Kinloch Anderson Kiltmakers and Highland dress in Edinburgh, and they said all the leather should match, shoes, sporran, sporran belt, kilt belt, kilt straps, the lot. That what I did with my outfit and I think it looks great, altho having said that, the back of my dress sporran is black, but you can hardly see it, and I might unpick and replace it one of these days

I think most traditional kilt makers of the past would have said the same and obviously at least one continues to say that the leathers should all match and I think many kilt-wearers, certainly those of my generation in Scotland will be aware of this advice. However, as we all know there is a big difference between theory and practice.

[gwynng]

Kinloch Anderson Kiltmakers and Highland dress in Edinburgh, and they said all the leather should match, shoes, sporran, sporran belt, kilt belt, kilt straps, the lot

In theory all matching leather sounds great, but aren't about 99.9% of the kilt straps out there black? Personally I stick with black simply because all of my kilts look better with black shoes/boots and my only 2 sporrans are black. Well, black leather on the day sporran and black and grey seal for the dress. I have yet to see a brown kilt strap in real life, so I just kind of think of the straps as a "neutral". My inclination otherwise would be to put a brown sporran with brown belt(s) and probably shoes too. I do the same for cowboy boots; belt and boots must be in the same color family for any self respecting cowboy.

My next two kilting projects are both blue based tartans, Ramsay blue modern and an unnamed blue tartan from Frasier and Kirkbright. I happened to find a dark navy leather scrap at Tandy, and since it look great on the tartan, will use that for the straps. But I have absolutely no inclination to try to find a navy blue sporran or shoes!

[TheBrus]

Elvis Presley started singing in my head ..."don't step on my blue, suede shoes." ith:

[Dale Seago]

Brown sporran, black shoes. . .My first thought on seeing that was "I'll have to try it sometime and see if it works for me".

Then I remembered I did do that at least once, at dinner at a restaurant. The sporran and kilt belt here are dark brown; you can't see the shoes, but I remember that I was wearing black brogues:





Maybe I'll do that sort of thing more often. . .

[gwynng]

Nice looking sporran. Is that tartan in the Hamilton Grey family? (AKA - Grey Douglas, Hamilton Granite or likewise)

[Dale Seago]

Nice looking sporran. Is that tartan in the Hamilton Grey family? (AKA - Grey Douglas, Hamilton Granite or likewise)

My mom's a Morton (Douglas affiliation); the tartan is Douglas Grey. Good guess!