Need advice for first time semi formal kilt wearing

[gbmaz]

With shipping it may come to the high end of your price range, but I own this and I am very happy with it.

That is rather handsome, but the shipping window would be rather tight given that the event is in 2 weeks.

[gbmaz]

I notice in a number of pictures that dress sporrans in lighter fur colors seem to be common. Is this a matter of using the lighter color to make the handsome sporran stand out more? Or is it more traditional?

[gbmaz]

Having lost my dressier sgian dubh to an overzealous sercurity person at a ren faire (seriously, 200 ft from the gate I could buy an 5 ft broadsword), I find myself looking for another one for this event. I am leaning towards a sgian brew to avoid the confiscation issue again.

Is stag handle considered an option with semi formal dress?

[Downunder Kilt]

It seems an old chestnut has risen again, that being the the issue of semi formal in highland attire and the answer being is that there is no such thing.

There is day wear, formal daywear and formal nightwear . The sgian dubh you describe is daywear. Cheers

[GG]

I will likely go with http://www.usakilts.com/black-bovine...ran-14286.html

It definitely looks like a nice dress sporran. And a good choice if your non-kilt alternative was a tux, I think.

[Downunder Kilt]

Another thread that maybe of use to the op.

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...xamples-85511/



Shows examples of through the spectrum of day wear, formal day wear and formal evening wear.

Cheers

[DyerStraits]

The 1 Kilt, 10 Looks guide is truly definitive...

I attend the opera regularly here in Chicago--where, believe it or not, patrons wearing jeans is not uncommon either--and unless it's Opening Night (as with Verdi's McBeth a few years ago) I usually opt for very dressy but not-quite-formal, daywear, as I did here:

20151003_212507.jpg

[OC Richard]

About button-down collars, I could be wrong but they strike me as an American thang.

With country tweed the British tend to wear Tattersall or Country Check style shirts (you can Google them) which can be very difficult to find at a US shopping mall- the American equivalents nearly always have button-down collars.

Country Check shirt- about as informal as you can get. Note the straight collar (not the point collar usually seen on American shirts)



So the British, I think I'm safe in saying, wouldn't wear a button-down collar shirt with the kilt at any level of formality.

An ordinary white collared shirt would be perfect. Ideally (for a British look) it would have a square or spread collar (rather than the American point collar) and not have buttons on the collar.

About sporrans, as I've often pointed out Highland Dress underwent quite a transformation in the years immediately following 1900, so by the 1920s Outdoor/Day dress used brown leather sporrans while Evening Dress used seal-skin sporrans with silver cantles. Even today these distinctions seem to be usually followed, by people accustomed to wearing Highland Dress in the traditional manner.

The Evening/Day dichotomy (in 1936)

Evening: (all are seal-skin)



Day: (all are brown) (some have fur; these are no more formal than the ones without fur)



Very nice vintage sporrans, both Day and Evening, are available on Ebay, often very cheaply. I see gorgeous vintage sporrans going for less that $50 all the time.

This is how I dressed a few years ago for a Burns Supper. I was the only kilted man not wearing a black Prince Charlie, I think! The charcoal-grey tweed jacket is hard to beat.

The wearing of the goat-hair sporran with silver cantle with such an outfit is certainly not correct in the post-1900 period. I should be wearing a Day sporran, leather.



More "correct" Day Dress, with Tattersall shirt and brown leather sporran



True Evening Dress is probably too dressy for your occasion.

[Panache]

gbmaz,

From what you have described of the event I myself would shoot for wearing the argyll jacket with a regular (not tux and not buttoned down) dress shirt and a nice tie. With a nice dress (or semi dress) sporran you are going to look great. Keep in mind that wearing the kilt itself is going to wow the rest of the attendees.

I wore a similar outfit for New Years Eve



Have a great time at your event

Cheers

Jamie

[OC Richard]

That's perfect Jamie.

I also notice that your kilt is of a nice traditional height, not the hip-hugging blue jeans height one sees so often nowadays. Well done!