Argyle jacket with white tie?

[RichardtheLarge]

Ah yes thank you, indeed I have seen that picture and yes it looks hideous!

Generally I think there are events that warrant a black bow tie and there are white tie events. Personally I rarely wear the kilt outwith Scotland and don't venture forth to those events these days. So should I attend formal evening events outwith Scotland I would wear a dinner jacket with a black bow tie or tails with white tie depending on the event's requirements.

As I think I have made clear the correct attire is the correct attire and anything else won't do for ultra formal events, and in Scotland the jabot is often the choice of attire for kilted gentlemen at white tie events in Scotland, but actually and interestingly, because kilt attire has very different traditions to saxon wear, a black tie with a higher end jacket(a PC won't really do), tartan hose, buckle shoes, formal sporran and silver sporran chain is perfectly acceptable to Scottish white tie events---------in Scotland.

When one is invited to these formal Scottish events, what is the invitation likely to say? “Eveningwear”? “White tie”? “Formalwear”? Would you have particular qualms, for example, about attending a “black tie” event internationally with a kilt and a suitably formal jacket/doublet and accessories? Or is this simply something you don’t elect to do yourself?

Living in the states, I’ve had no occasion to be confronted with this particular issue at home as I’ve never been invited to an event that has specified “black tie” “white tie” or “white tie and tails”. The closest I’ve come is an invitation that specified “semi-formal”, but at which people were wearing a wide variety of things including daywear Saxon suits and formal tails. This lack of consciousness and organization, I suppose, is what has led pundits to cry that (at least in North America) “black tie is dead”.

For me, then, there’s no particular obstacle to wearing a kilt formally or semiformally to the events I do attend (theatrical and musical events and premieres, for the most part). There is effectively no dress code at all at such events, and you see people wearing everything from jeans to tails to them in the States. My kilt and jacket, then, are just seen as novel, fun spirited, and interesting, at least to those who have voiced an opinion to me on the subject.

One more question on the subject of Scottish formalwear: all else being identical in two outfits, are lace jabot and cuffs with a Sheriffmuir doublet, for example, considered equally formal as a black bow tie and French cuffs with the doublet?