I did not realize Cluny McPherson was wearing a regulation doublet. From the angle of the photo, it looked like another Argyll. Pretty hard to go wrong with a regulation.

I tried not to get too long winded in my earlier post, in order to preserve the readers' patience a little bit, which I hope to use up now. In SC, there is an outfit mockingly referred to as a Charleston Tuxedo: khaki pants and a navy blazer, called that because so many people in Charleston (and throughout the south, really) wear it everywhere. It is as dressed up as many men ever get. If you are too hip for a navy blazer, you might want a black blazer.

I am not that hip myself, but I see that as the real Argyll question: Black or Navy? I think black is iffy for daywear, because it has not been universally accepted as a daytime color for (British and American) men in most of the twentieth century, whereas navy, or charcoal, or other grey, or even brown would be. By contrast, if you wanted to be strictly formal after six, you'd want black. So there you are, either you get black and look like an old west bad guy at noon, or you get blue and run the risk of looking underdressed at night. If you get tweed, you can't wear it for formal events. And yes, in the daytime, black looks like part of a band uniform.

But the white jacket? The problem, as Bertie Wooster learned when he came back from Cannes, is that white formal jackets really only work when it is so hot that even the perceived warmth of a black coat seems too much. (Of course, that is not really an issue most of the time- either there is AC or it's so hot that a white coat is still stifling.) Wear white formal wear any other time, though, and you look like you're trying to be Cab Calloway. Or Captain Steubing.