"Military Officer's sporrans" on Ebay

[figheadair]

Jock's point is, as ever, well made. My Argyll jacket was made by Andersons for a Capt. Campbell in 1942. Never mind the name , the quality is superb.

[OC Richard]

Silver buttons, the cuffs, the black piping leading to the buttons, are probably things that have some historical roots in military uniforms

It's always interesting to me how people see the cuffs on Highland jackets and think that they originated in the military, while actually they existed in civilian costume first. In general, in Highland costume, the flow went civilian > military.

[AFS1970]

I think the frame of reference is different depending on your country but also on how history is recorded.

America being a relatively young country, much of our history comes from elsewhere, thus if the civilian to military transition had already occurred, we would only know it as a military tradition. Despite being the first president, most of the pictures we have of George Washington are of him as a general. So we tend to think of him in a military uniform. While there are pictures of him in civilian dress they are not as common at the military ones.

Add this to the fact that even in modern dress the military is often the only ones holding onto certain traditions (which is a good thing) but with some other uniformed services getting less and less formal, the perception of fancy garments being military garments is reinforced in our minds. Certainly as we have discussed at length civilian formal wear is getting less and less common.