Need advice for first time semi formal kilt wearing

[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:

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[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!

[JohntheBiker]

A couple of versions of "semi-formal" using an argyll jacket. I find the argyll handy when a PC would be too much. Given that I don't own a "semi-formal" sporran, my default is my seal skin sporran. Lots of options:

[gbmaz]

As promised here are some photos of what I came up with based off of everyone's advice.

[Tarheel]

As promised here are some photos of what I came up with based off of everyone's advice.

The glasses (providing incognito) are the best accent to avoid paparazzi. Well done sir.