Dress Codes

[CMcG]

Here is the follow up to my example of the end of term party held by the Vice Chancellor of CUHK (post #39). As you will recall, the dress code was "semi formal / national costume."

I was pleased to see people generally seemed to be making an effort. The interpretation of the dress code ranged from jeans and untucked shirt (thankfully few people); through slacks with a tucked in shirt, tie optional (the majority of the students); up into sports coats, shirt, tie optional, and slacks; and got about as high as a dark suit (the majority of the profs). For national attire, there were a pair of Japanese girls, several Chinese girls, and a group of Korean girls, but the Vice Chancellor and I were the only men wearing so dressed.

He wore slacks, a shirt, tie, and a blue silk Chinese jacket. The VC was overjoyed at a Canadian wearing the national attire of his ancestors and went out of his way to get photos taken with me. I wore my clan tartan kilt, a CUHK striped tie, light blue shirt, dress Braemar jacket, matching waistcoat, solid navy hose, and hunting sporran.

Apologies for the slightly blurry photo. Night time is not the best for snapping pics. The Chinese lion head next to me is what I used for the dance I performed earlier in the night:



As far as the appropriateness of my attire for the event, I felt slightly over dressed and would have preferred a tweed jacket. I could only spare room in my luggage for one jacket and needed something that could stretch between semi-formal and formal, so I brought the Braemar.

Sure enough, there were a couple Scottish professors there and I felt trepidation that I would be shunned or scolded for daring to wear the attire of my heritage. Actually, they were friendly and we had lovely chats! One of them was a kilt-wearer and, as I predicted, was regretting not bringing his kilt with him. The other was not a kilt-wearer but commented that "Canada is close enough to Scotland" considering that we have so many people of Scots ancestry here. I did get a mild reprimand for not having a flask in my sporran

Most of the people that I spoke with asked where I was from and seemed satisfied with the answer that I'm from Canada, while the kilt is the attire of my ancestors. The host was pleased and the organizers asked if I would wear my kilt for the black tie end of term party next week. All in all, I'd say it was a dress code success