Day wear sporran

[kfalardeau]

What are people's opinions on THCD daywear sporrans. I currently have a plain black leather day sporran but am looking for something brown to be a little more traditional and earthy for wearing with tweed.

I'm looking at either a brown leather sporran with leather tassels or a fur front brown leather sporran with leather tassels. I know everyone has an opinion in semi dress sporrans but it seems like fur front is still a traditional day wear sporran?

Experts please help!

[Father Bill]

The so-called "semi-formal" sporrans are a very recent innovation and many will see them as very nice without knowing that or if they do, without caring. Others will say that they are neither fish nor fowl and have no place where they really belong. I tend to belong to the latter group while respecting the tastes of the former. Fur is traditionally considered 'dressier' so perhaps not really daywear.

Plain leather brown is fine. Check out these for quality that will never die: https://www.mcrostie.co.uk/product-c...e-in-scotland/ While they are not cheapies, experts will recognize the value and high class of an understated sporran, while non-experts can at least recognize that the quality of leather and workmanship is very, very high. If you can't afford this particular item, I'd still head for something that resembles it. My black one ("Hastings" style) is very high class in my own mind.

[Steve Ashton]

In very general terms -

Brown is regarded as less formal than black. Brown is usually thought of as for wear during the day, and/or when in the country.

A Sporran that is all leather is usually thought of as less formal that a Sporran with fur.
A Sporran with a flap is usually thought of as less formal that one with a cantle.
A Sporran with a leather cantle is usually thought of as less formal that one with a metal cantle.

So - following these ideas -

This would be least formal -



The brown version of this would be regarded as less formal than the black, but more formal that the plain on above.


]

Then these with fur would be one step up.



This brown hunter style would be less formal that the black version.





Then the same black hunter with a metal cantle would be one step up.



Then up near the top of the formality pyramid would be those sporran with metal cantles and all fur. And there are hundreds of different styles and furs and metals.



The long horse hair sporran are usually thought of a for the military and pipe bands.






But really it comes down to your personal taste and style. None of this is in the form of written down rules. While some may want there to be rules and make it sound like there are, no kilt kop can come along and give you a ticket for wearing what looks best to you.

I personally do not wear much fur. I'm not against fur, I'm just not a fur guy. So about the most formal I get is a black Hunter with bright metal cantle.

Here is my normal, every day look -



And for those very rare formal Black Tie occasions this is about as fancy as I get. -

[Micrographia]

To be honest I think black leather looks just as traditional as brown, but if you want another sporran I'm the last person to try and talk you out of it . I have a dark brown McRostie and it is a thing of beauty but expensive enough to replace to make me think twice about wearing it where it might get dinged, so my old tasseled day sporran still gets an outing now and again.

I'm pretty relaxed about semi-formal sporrans, they are just a fancy day sporran really. I think they need some shiny metal to qualify as semi-formal though so if the ones you are looking at are missing the bling then I think they would be completely fine for day wear. I wore a pony skin day sporran as a child and that was <cough> years ago so a bit of fur on an otherwise plain day sporran isn't an issue as far as I'm concerned. Any links to the sporrans you are looking at?

Regards, EEM.

[KennethSime]

I'm a big fan of hunting sporrans for smart daywear. I particularly like the day sporrans offered by W.E. Scott & Son in Khaki Pigskin. I managed to snag one for cheap on eBay, but they're relatively affordable anyhow. Link.

[Jock Scot]

Black or brown matters not for general day attire sporrans, although I think a black sporran for formal day attire(morning dress equivalent) is better. For forty something years I have had just one sporran, a black plain leather McRostie. This sporran has been worn to any and every event from the most formal of formal events, to days out on the hill. Have I been struck by a bolt of lightning for doing so? No! Now, I am not suggesting for one second that everyone should do that, but it suits me.

Let me explain. In the past I got to a stage where I had a large room full kilt attire belonging to past family members and looking after it just got to be too much bother. So I recycled it all, apart from a SD, a silver link sporran chain and a kilt pin, amongst assorted family members far and wide. My sons of course had first choice. On top of that, whilst being a keen shooting man still to this day, I felt--- still do--- uneasy that fur of any sort needed to be made into sporrans . So I went with one plain black leather sporran for everything as a temporary measure, thinking if needed, I could borrow a dress sporran from one of my sons whilst looking for a dress sporran that I liked. Some forty years later I am still searching for one, or, even a design of one that I am comfortable with. The end result? My plain black leather sporran is doing me just fine.

[imbrius]

I own a "semi-dress" sporran. Black leather, tooled flap, fur front, chromed chain tassels. I would love to have a set of braided black leather tassels to swap in in place of the chromed set, I would certainly love that - I'm not a fan of the chromed tassels on an otherwise "plain" leather day sporran.

I've worn that "semi-dress" sporran, fully cognizant of its THCD-defying status, more often than I thought I would, however it is by far my least-worn sporran. I find myself wearing it any time a full dress evening sporran isn't appropriate but I am wearing a metal-mounted sgian dubh. I would think a polished black leather day sporran would also work very well.

If I had to have only one sporran, however, it would be my plain brown leather day sporran.

[Queenslander]

I own a "semi-dress" sporran. Black leather, tooled flap, fur front, chromed chain tassels. I would love to have a set of braided black leather tassels to swap in in place of the chromed set, I would certainly love that - I'm not a fan of the chromed tassels on an otherwise "plain" leather day sporran.



I've worn that "semi-dress" sporran, fully cognizant of its THCD-defying status, more often than I thought I would, however it is by far my least-worn sporran. I find myself wearing it any time a full dress evening sporran isn't appropriate but I am wearing a metal-mounted sgian dubh. I would think a polished black leather day sporran would also work very well.

If I had to have only one sporran, however, it would be my plain brown leather day sporran.

I have a similar sporran. It is seal fur and besides that it holds sentimental value for me. I just took the tassels off and wear it without.

[figheadair]

I've never owned a black sporran. My choice for general Day Wear.

Andersons' Hunting Sporran c1930.
Sporran - Anderson's c1930-Front-sm.jpg

Or, an MOD Brass Cantle with deer skin bag.
P1000196.jpg

And if it's a more formal event (I also wear this for non-Black Tie evening events), a Celtic Revival silver cantle sporran, HM 1896.
1896 Sporran.jpg

[OC Richard]

What are people's opinions on TCHD daywear sporrans...

The tricky part is defining "traditional".

Through looking at loads of images from various periods, and reading things, I've put together what "traditional" means to me YMMV.

For me it comes down to continuity across time. Across what span of time? It seems clear that HD underwent dramatic change between, say, c1900 and c1930. The dress that emerged in the 1920s is still with us today.

What works best for me, to put things to the test, is to imagine time travel. Pluck a gent from 1930 and plop him down at a Highland Games in 1950, or 1980, or today and there's nothing about his outfit that would get a second glance. (His hair style, perhaps!)

Let's look at these gents. The man at top right is from the 1870s. The piper at bottom right is from 1907. The gent in the silly advert is from the 1950s. The others are from various times between. Not only could any of these men travel unnoticed between those times, they could appear at a Highland Games today and their clothing not get strange looks. (Their hair styles, yes.)



It gets trickier going the other way! For one thing, the tartans worn in the 1930s would still look normal today, whereas we have Weathered colours (that didn't appear until 1949) and hundreds of new tartans which appeared in the 1980s and later.

So let's take this photo of myself for example. What if I were plopped down in a Highland Games from 1930 or 1950?



The main thing would be the Weathered Colours kilt, which would have been utterly strange in 1930 and cutting-edge new in 1950. Other than that my outfit wouldn't look out of place. (My beard, yes, as men of my generation would be clean-shaven or have only a moustache.)

I think the biggest shift has been due to the rise of the Kilt Hire Industry in the 1970s. Prior to that, Day Dress and Evening Dress were well-differentiated. Suddenly the Hire shops were hiring black Argylls and Prince Charlies by the thousands. Evidently the shops found the tartan full hose and seal Evening sporrans too expensive, so they hired out plain/solid hose and plain leather sporrans. Now, previously Day hose had been Lovat or Fawn etc and the leather Day sporrans had been brown, but now everything had to be white or black to match the jacket, shirt, and tie.

Thus the previously clear-cut Day and Evening categories got blurred and the hitherto unknown "semi-dress" sporrans were born.

Perhaps the biggest puzzler was why the Hire shops leapt on Ghillie Brogues, which now became, for many, the default Highland shoe. (Why not ordinary black shoes? Who can say.)

...everyone has an opinion in semi-dress sporrans...

They appeared in the 1970s, as best I can tell. To my eye they're not "traditional" because they don't fit into either of the traditional dress categories. Indeed they were created for that purpose.

...it seems like fur front is still a traditional day wear sporran?

Yes when the small round or pocket-shaped leather sporrans appeared they were made both with leather fronts, and with fur fronts, from the get-go. Both were strictly Day Dress sporrans. The concept of "semi-dress" sporrans had to wait until the 1970s.

Let's say you walk into a Highland outfitter in Glasgow or Edinburgh in the 1930s. Here's the sort of Day sporrans you would likely see. All are brown some have fur.





This catalogue from the 1970s shows that not all that much has changed. (All are brown.)