Chesterfield Coat?

[Jock Scot]

I will stick to answering the penultimate paragraph as a nuclear can of worms is just waiting to be opened if we are not careful.

Actually walking twenty minutes in the Highlands will, oft times, get you, well, nowhere! Whilst I am sure there are some that bother with some fancy style overcoat to go to a formal event, practicallity usually is the choice. Most will drive to the event and use an umbrella to cover the distance between the car and the venue.

[creagdhubh]

I will stick to answering the penultimate paragraph as a nuclear can of worms is just waiting to be opened if we are not careful.

Actually walking twenty minutes in the Highlands will, oft times, get you, well, nowhere! Whilst I am sure there are some that bother with some fancy style overcoat to go to a formal event, practicallity usually is the choice. Most will drive to the event and use an umbrella to cover the distance between the car and the venue.

Sounds about right to me, Jock. Not to mention the many drams had during the course of an evening to keep out the cold if one must indeed walk home! I actually did this several years ago after a black tie affair in the Scottish Highlands. It was during our annual Clan Macpherson Gathering Ball at the Duke of Gordon Hotel in Kingussie, Inverness-shire. After the ball concluded in the wee hours of the morning, the chap (a fellow Macpherson cousin) that was supposed give me a ride to my accommodations in nearby Newtonmore had passed out. So, I gathered my doublet, threw it back on, since I had taken it off due to the fact that I had become very hot and rather sweaty from the countless reels performed earlier in the evening, and proceeded to walk the 3 miles south (no formal coat, no Barbour...I was completely fine, but I'm quite lucky that it didn't rain) to Newtonmore. Rest assure, I made it home safely and quickly passed out myself!

[CeilidhDoc]

I appreciate the anecdotes and recommendations.

I am assuming then that if we moved the venue from the highlands to downtown Glasgow where you were to be inducted into some well-respected society or recognized for something or other in black tie attire that you would just deal with whatever weather between the car and the venue coatless.

The real world application of all this is helpful to me.

Slainte.

[Jock Scot]

I appreciate the anecdotes and recommendations.

I am assuming then that if we moved the venue from the highlands to downtown Glasgow where you were to be inducted into some well-respected society or recognized for something or other in black tie attire that you would just deal with whatever weather between the car and the venue coatless.

The real world application of all this is helpful to me.

Slainte.

That is pretty much it, I would say. Although some of the clerics are lucky enough to have smashing cloaks that look pretty smart.

[Nathan]

I guess it's a weather thing. Every Canadian man I know that regularly wears suits has a proper wool dress overcoat and a smart dress scarf for winter. Older gents have rubber overshoes or overboots to protect their shoes as well. Come to think of it, those are a smart innovation and I can't figure out why they have fell out of fashion in my demographic...

As for walking from the car to the venue, an umbrella is ok if it's not windy, but why be cold, wet, windblown and dishevelled? I wouldn't want to get snow on my fine jacket walking from the parking lot over the ice to the venue so I would wear a long dark wool overcoat. I also have more casual jackets and parkas, some goretex and some not unlike the barbour ones pictured, but I wouldn't reach for those in this circumstance. I save those for when I'm wearing jeans. Well...to be perfectly honest, I might reach for the parka in a blizzard, because during a Canadian blizzard all fashion errors are forgiven in the name of survival.

[Father Bill]

That is pretty much it, I would say. Although some of the clerics are lucky enough to have smashing cloaks that look pretty smart.

What sort of style are you envisioning, Jock?

[Jock Scot]

What sort of style are you envisioning, Jock?

I can't say that I have studied them in detail Bill, but the impressions I see are : Black(very dark blue?), heavy wool, drape over the shoulders and fall to perhaps six inches from the ground, one hook and chain fastening, and a small collar-----not the Dracular-esque collar style. I have never given these sorts of cloaks much thought over my time, but on reflection they would be perfect for a formal kilt event for protection from the elements.

I really cannot see what is wrong with the tweed inverness either. Theatrical? Well maybe, but putting on the kilt, outwith Scotland ensures that you are heading down that route anyway, in many people's eyes. The Sherlock Holmes thing? Well it is called an inverness after the capital of the Scottish Highlands, so perhaps Inverness is therefore aguably also the capital of traditional kilts? I rather think the inverness coat was well on its way to common usage, well before Sherlock Holmes arrived on the scene.

Come on chaps if you are going to wear the kilt tradionally outwith Scotland , don't wimp out and make concessions with your attire, in my view, wear the traditional attire properly(concessions for climate apart) with the correct accessories and THEN you can educate the unknowing and in the long run you can walk the streets with even more confidence! In my humble opinion making concessions only makes the situation worse, not better.

[Father Bill]

Thanks Jock; I thought that's what you meant.

We call then "funeral cloaks" hereabouts, and I have a black one in my front hall closet... and yes, I have worn it with my kilt on a particularly dark and stormy evening when I had to park at the far end of nowhere, and yes fellows I was teased... but I think it was partly jealous teasing.

Appreciate the highland perspective on my choice!

[Llama]

Come on chaps if you are going to wear the kilt traditionally outwith Scotland , don't wimp out and make concessions with your attire, in my view, wear the traditional attire properly(concessions for climate apart) with the correct accessories and THEN you can educate the unknowing and in the long run you can walk the streets with even more confidence! In my humble opinion making concessions only makes the situation worse, not better.

Well said, Jock. We are often afraid of overdoing it, but that puts us in danger of not doing it up right. I'll definitely keep that in mind.

[CeilidhDoc]

I very much appreciate the input Jock and everyone else.

As a summary of the recommendations here it would appear that the consensus is either to wear no overcoat, to wear a causal coat that is preferably somehow connected with Scotland (like a Barbour coat), OR if you really need a formal overcoat for the occasion go big or go home. The Inverness is the highland equivalent of the Chesterfield coat and nothing else compares.

I think I have been persuaded that for an event that really calls for a formal overcoat while kilted, the only real solution is the Inverness Cape/Coat if it really matters. And if it doesn't then a casual coat would suffice since you are checking it at the door anyway.

Looks like I need to either start saving for the Inverness or figure out a way to make one.

This thread has been very helpful to me and I hope to others as well.

Slainte to all.