what formal events do you attend, and...

[Alan H]

Alan, you need to hang with less "rabble" and more "society" then.

Seriously, if you really want to be invited to such events, you have to know or belong to groups that hold these events regularly; for example, hereditary societies, St. Andrews Societies, etc. I know you didn't say you "wanted" to go to such events, but it would save you having to get rid of your nice things. Just a thought.

I have no great desire to attend events just on the basis of what people wear to them. I mean, I have no *objection* to attending a black tie or white tie event, I don't have some sort of perceived moral objection to getting dressed to the nines, it's just that I just wouldn't change the nature of my life so as to be invited to such things. I don't have time enough to engage all my interests as it is, I certainly don't need to go join organizations just so I get invited to their formal balls! :LOL: See, I have reasonable black tie kit because I might NEED it. That's different from going out and finding a reason, or an excuse to "need" black tie kit.

In fact, the reason why I own the black tie kit is that I got caught up, early on, in "Kilt Enthusiasm" and bought a bunch of stuff I don't really need, just because it was KILT STUFF. I'm over that stage, now!

Also, I'm kind of choosy over where I blow my money. If there was ever a black tie event I might be interested in going to, it'd be Opening Night at the San Francisco Symphony. However, thickets for opening night start at $150 a seat and go up from there. To my perspective, that's the equivalent of three other concerts....I could attend three other Symphony concerts and sit in very nice seats for the price of sitting in the cheap seats on Opening Night. It makes no sense to me, to blow three hundred bucks on Opening Night. Let the glitterati have their night, I'll have mine.

Alan,

Even if you only wear your formal rig once a year, isn't it still wonderful to look so dapper for that one night?

You may never need of it to attend any other formal events but isn't it a nice thing to have the option?

When you are invited to attend a premier at the the SF Opera in a box seat you will smile to yourself and know that in your closet you are prepared to escort the Luminous Joan in style.

Cheers

Jamie

Honestly, James, I don't get any particular pleasure out of looking dapper. When I attend events I go because I like the people, or I support the cause that it benefits, or the activity that's going on, and so on. I don't go to an event because it's an excuse to dress up. As for the unexpected and *EXTREMELY* unlikely possibility of being invited to the Opera on Opening Night in a box seat, uh......I won't hold my breath! Our friends Bob and Anne have in fact given us Opera tickets that they can't use, a few times, but they're always in "nice" seats on a regular Saturday Night, and a coat and tie is appropriate. Purchasing and maintaining a Doublet on the outside chance, one in a million, that I *might* get invited to such an event or get given such tickets is...well... kind of not how I do things!

Finally, someone suggested that I organize my own Black Tie or White Tie event. In fact I did that, as I was one of the organizers of the first Nor Cal Burns Night, which Panache has admirably run since then. It was fun, but at no point did we want to exclude anybody on the basis of not owning black tie kit. We purposefully kept the admission price low, and we've continued that principle. Not everybody can afford black tie stuff, and so it's not required. I thought very hard about running a Burns Night Dinner for the Nor Cal Scottish Heavy Athletes, but dropped the plan when I saw that I'd take a licking on the dollars and cents side of it.

I don't see the point of organizing a black-tie event just so we have a black-tie event. Events as excuses to put on fancy clothes don't make sense to me. Events that celebrate worthwhile things...weddings, Burns Night, graduation, christenings, the work of a respected and valued colleague and so on...THAT makes sense to me. If those happen to work out to be black tie or white tie, then fine, but making them so, just as an excuse to put on the expensive clothes you bought, *doesn't* make sense to me.

But again, that's just me. Other folks may have different perspectives. I'm intrigued, reading the responses, here.