Is a regulation doublet more formal than a prince charlie?

[kilted2000]

Pretty much what the title says. I like how a regulation doublet is very similar to a Prince Charlie but just a little bit different. Is it still black tie, or is it one step above?

[Tomo]

It's the same.

Black Tie and White Tie are perhaps misnomers in the context of highland wear. These are both formal jackets. Don't get hung up about it. If you'd rather wear a regulation doublet to a formal event than a PC, go for it.

[figheadair]

The Regulation Doublet is the older form but less often seen today because of the hire trade which defaults to Prince Charlie and some other more recent variations.

[OC Richard]

The background is that from c1840 to c1920 the Doublet was by far the most popular Highland formal jacket.

I have piles of photos of men wearing doublets from that time period and it seems that no two doublets are alike. The common theme included tashes and gauntlet cuffs. (Doublets with slash cuffs are seen, but rarely.)

The front had lapels, which could be of any sort. Some doublets had a low-cut "V" and some high. Military-style doublets buttoned all the way up and had a stand collar.

This photo shows several, but by no means all, of the doublet styles seen. I've not come across anything that suggests that any were called anything other than "doublets"



Here, to right, MacLeay shows a civilian doublet with a military-style collar



The other formal jackets I've seen were the Argyll cut (the same cut as informal tweed jackets), shell jackets, and what appear to be reproductions/revivals of Regency-style jackets. None of these are seen very often.

An Evening Argyll



Here, to right, MacLeay shows an Evening Shell Jacket




That was the situation up until around 1910 when the Prince Charlie Coatee appeared. It was viewed as being newfangled and suitable to slim fashionable young men. Sober mature gents continued wearing the traditional doublets.

By the 1920s the Montrose had appeared, more or less a revival of the mid-19th century Shell Jacket (ending at the waist all around).

Then Anderson's introduced what they called the Kenmore Doublet, which was simply a doublet with nothing to distinguish it from many of the old 19th century designs.

All of these jackets were "Evening" jackets and in black, green, blue, claret etc were worn at similar functions.

By the 1930s the old doublet had gone from being the Evening mainstay to being merely one of several Evening jacket choices.

Just why people started calling the traditional doublet the "regulation" doublet who can say. The old doublet being purely civilian, one wonders what regulation was being referenced.

I also wonder why the Prince Charlie Coatee began gaining popularity over the other Evening jacket styles. In any case when the Kilt Hire Industry exploded in the 1980s it was the Prince Charlie which was selected as the end-all be-all Evening jacket. Now one might see an endless sea of identical black Prince Charlies at an Evening function. Gone was the rich variety which had existed for 150 years.