When to wear black/brown?

[Raphael]

When you wear black shoes, wear black belt and black sporran.

When you wear brown shoes, wear brown belt and brown sporran.

[Riverkilt]

I'm with Raphael, match the shoes. And for me, I choose the shoes match the tartan best. I like to wear brown leathers with my green tartans. Also have worn brown with my white Antarctic. If you get down to it brown goes with about every tartan as well as black. And, sometimes in cold weather you're also matching a black or brown leather jacket as the key.

Only glitch is all my kilts have black kilt straps and even if brown leathers are perfect for the tartan it always looks a bit weird to me to have the black kilt straps in there. But I don't think the public notices as much as we do about ourselves.

I mean dang, even my brown tartans have black leather kilt straps...what's that all about? Maybe there's no market for brown leather kilt straps so the kilt strap makers don't offer them.

The neat part about brown leathers is when you give them a try you'll find they go with a lot more of your tartans than you may have thought.

Ron

[Panache]

...Only glitch is all my kilts have black kilt straps and even if brown leathers are perfect for the tartan it always looks a bit weird to me to have the black kilt straps in there. But I don't think the public notices as much as we do about ourselves...Ron

This one thing I love about my two tone brown and black Freelander sporran. When I am wearing brown accessories that little bit of black on the sporran's sides tie in the black of the straps.

Cheers

Jamie

[puffer]

Some thoughts

1.If you are wearing a Black Watch or Seaforth ( I am unsure about other gov. plaids) then BROWN
1.Historically accurate In almost every painting, where the individual is wearing an undress ( non furred) sporran it is brown, from the Rev war on.
here is a pic of a 1897 Black Watch sporran


2.Why Because BROWN is the ISSUE color.

Here are 2 pics of Gov. issue sporrans I own.

A. WWII officer's (note current issue is the same except smaller)


B & C !962 OR sporran - Seaforth (Canada) ( note C is closest to the true color





BTW, I wear Brown if my kilt has brown in it, & black if it has Black in it

Puffer

[Hamish]

There are no hard and fast rules.

Very true, Jock!

You would be better with black for evening wear.

Oh, definitely.

Brown sporrans were not seen at all in my youth(1940/50's) and I suppose, nor was weathered tartan either.Black or fur was the norm, then, for daywear too.

How strange you should said that, Jock - I should have said it was quite the opposite! My first two day sporrans (in the early 1950s) were brown - I remember having no choice of colour and a very small selection of models/styles! It was some years before I obtained an evening sporran (which came in black, but without fur). Fur, or sealskin, was reserved for the Dress sporran - silver cantle and sealskin with no leather being visible from the front.

Having said that, we were no doubt still suffering the shortages and restrictions imposed during WWII and were glad for whatever we could obtain!

I personaly wear black in the day, but brown looks fine to me.Not too sure about weathered tartan though.

Nowadays, I wear either brown or black during the day, depending upon the tartan I happen to be wearing - some tartans just do not look right with black accessories, whilst others do not suit brown. "Accessories" embrace belt, sporran/sporran strap and shoes - do not forget the shoes!

One thing I do not do, is mix black and brown accessories, nor do I wear a dress belt (with a waist-plate rather than a pronged buckle) during the day. Having said that, I do have a brown pigskin belt with a brass waist-plate, intended for day wear, but I have not worn it for years! As far as buckle colours go: generally it is brass buckle with brown belt and chrome/silver-coloured buckles with black belts. Again, other combinations just do not look right!

I agree about the 'Weathered' tartans though, and whilst I know they are generally a fairly recent introduction, I cannot help but find most of them VERY attractive, along with 'muted' or 'ancient' colours. Modern colours I find, in the main, are too intense or saturated. Fortunately: each to his own, eh?

Take care,
Ham.

[ardchoille]

I think I'm just going to not worry about a belt. Every kilt I have remains in place without a belt anyway. I'm going to buy a nice brown sporran to wear with my ancient tartans and keep the black sporran for my modern tartans.

I've also seen that it seems to be acceptable to wear tennis shoes with kilt hose. I need to go shopping

[sydnie7]

[snip] I've also seen that it seems to be acceptable to wear tennis shoes with kilt hose. I need to go shopping

To me, tennis shoes/trainers and kilt hose look silly. Maybe some boots/hikers can pull it off, but generally with anything other than a dress shoe, I'd rather see scrunched down socks (could be kilt hose, just not worn at full height). But see above re: no rules!

[JerseyLawyer]

Sure there are rules - for example, the pleats go to the back. You can be a rebel and wear them to the front if you want, but people will just think you're a doofus.

Anyway, I digress, because I agree there are no hard rules on this one. With the exception, possibly, of brown not being proper for evening. I think either black or brown is fine for daytime.

Hamish is right about the evening belt, but then again, in most stores, that's all you'll find (the black belt with silver waist plate). So, lots of people, myself included, wear them during the day too. I'd just avoid anything jeweled or made of patent leather in the cold light of day.

[Nick the DSM]

i think if they match, then its fine. i personally don't think brown is casual or black is evening, plus all i have is black.