Dress code: Cocktail party attire; elegant but no black tie. Kilt equivalent?

[CMcG]

That sounds like a job for a subdued tweed jacket, leather sporran, polished brogues, solid colour hose, and subtly patterned shirt. I'd probably wear a tie, but be prepared to take it off depending on the level of dress of the rest of the crowd. A jaunty pocket square would finish the look nicely.

[WillowEstate]

Bottom line: need the equivalent of a nice Navy Blue Blazer but cut in a kilt style.

AA

I'd go with a navy blue blazer worn unbuttoned (I have a shortish one with weathered brass buttons that is close to the background blue in my MacKenzie Seaforth kilt), plain business shirt, regular long tie, black leather semi-dress sporran, black polished Oxford shoes, black hose with blue flashes.

[WillowEstate]

It is a scotch based event.

Best single malt, I hope!

[Mikilt]

...anybody out there brave enough to kick out the first seersucker kilt jacket?

Best

AA

It's been done here: http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...-summer-74254/


And here: http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...er-kilt-79759/

[JSFMACLJR]

Cocktails?

[Panache]

What I might wear to a cocktail party (A Negroni please or a Pink Gin if you don't have Campari)



The turtleneck shirt dials down the argyll jacket while looking smart.

Fez is optional.

Cheers

Jamie

[OC Richard]

This points to a gap in the current lines of kiltwear. Sometimes the Argyll jacket is a bit much and a tweed is too daywear...need the equivalent of a Navy Blue Blazer but cut in a kilt style.

Yes this has been discussed before, the fact that the traditional Highland Dress as it became codified in the early 20th century has two modes which don't have a one-to-one matchup with the various modes of Sassenach dress.

Yet, one can easily create the equivalent of such, as "wrong" as it might be in the traditional Highland Dress world. For example an Argyll jacket made from deep blue cloth with gold buttons would be, visually, the exact equivalent to your Navy Blazer with brass buttons. Or an Archer Green Argyll with silver buttons wouldn't look all that different either. Such jackets are somewhat in a "mode gap" between a tweed Day jacket and a black Evening one.

Actually the "black is for Evening Dress" concept didn't exist in the 1920s and 1930s; this can be seen in my vintage catalogues which show Prince Charlie jackets in green and blue (and in fact one catalogue doesn't show Prince Charlies in black, only in colours).

As seen above Charcoal tweed kilt jackets somehow look a bit dressier than rough herringbone or check Outdoor jackets though technically tweed is tweed.

[cck]

Heading to an event with the following dress code: Cocktail party attire; elegant but no black tie. Will be interesting to see what folks think would be a kilt equivalent. It is a scotch based event.

If I were invited to an event with those specifications, I would think they were expecting a suit. The equivalent would be Argyll jacket and kilt.

[Highlander31]

Yes this has been discussed before, the fact that the traditional Highland Dress as it became codified in the early 20th century has two modes which don't have a one-to-one matchup with the various modes of Sassenach dress.

Yet, one can easily create the equivalent of such, as "wrong" as it might be in the traditional Highland Dress world. For example an Argyll jacket made from deep blue cloth with gold buttons would be, visually, the exact equivalent to your Navy Blazer with brass buttons. Or an Archer Green Argyll with silver buttons wouldn't look all that different either. Such jackets are somewhat in a "mode gap" between a tweed Day jacket and a black Evening one.

Actually the "black is for Evening Dress" concept didn't exist in the 1920s and 1930s; this can be seen in my vintage catalogues which show Prince Charlie jackets in green and blue (and in fact one catalogue doesn't show Prince Charlies in black, only in colours).

As seen above Charcoal tweed kilt jackets somehow look a bit dressier than rough herringbone or check Outdoor jackets though technically tweed is tweed.

Our own Wizard of Freedom Kilts, Steve Ashton, and Matt Newsome, of New House Highland have designed jackets that would work.

[OC Richard]

Not to take anything away from Steve or Matt, but charcoal grey and dark blue kilt jackets like they're wearing appear in The Highlanders of Scotland and thus have been around for at least 150 years.

Here both of them are, in one painting no less