Wool Flat Cap... a no-no with a kilt?

[Jack Daw]

In the States, a shirt with a button-down collar is easily worn with loafers, a blue blazer, and some khaki trousers - it's the old college or preppy look. That has been my look for years; so, it is natural for me to wear a button-down, with either open collar or an informal tie, along with a tweed kilt jacket and kilt. Maybe, I shouldn't do this in the Highlands, but I can safely get away with it in the Colonies without raising bushy eyebrows.

(When in Rhome, Texas, do as the Rhomans do.)

[auld argonian]

I'm with Jack Daw on the Preppy look...as I think I said in another thread, I have that Preppy look as a hold over from high school and it sort of merged with the wearing of jeans and cowboy boots as a result of exposure to some of the rock bands of the late '60's...notably Buffalo Springfield.

But I digress...and isn't nice that we digress so much in this forum? We learn so much from the digressions.

But the button down collar shirt is actually considered very conservative here in The States...some of the trendier collar styles are considered "wilder" while the button down has always been a staple of conservative dress. Again...not with a suit, though...blazer, sportcoat...okay...suit...no. I have lived to regret some of the variations in the width of collars on shirts that I have worn in the past, though...the expression "whammo bird" collar (referring to a toy ornithopter from the 50's that had long wings) still makes me cringe and I think that I have probably destroyed every photograph that provides evidence that I ever wore one of them.

Good old plain shirts with collars of a respectable length are just a given for a guy's wardrobe but do remember that the cut of suits has changed over the years and for many of the styles that have come and gone, the shirt collar has to have changed just so it looked proportional to the cut of the suit. When I started high school, the cut of the suits worn around here (I know that it's also regional...that's a factor) were very slim and Italian...thus the tab collar looked right with the suit. It changes.

Again, as far as shirts that I wear with a kilt and a kilt jacket, I can assure you that they are normal shirts with a normal, non-button, non-tab, non-anything collar. White most of the time but one very light grey, a light tan and a light blue....no drama. Nothing else really looks right...the kilt almost forces you to play it straight just by it's very nature and by virtue of the fact that you've been seeing photos of well dressed men wearing the kilt for so many years and consciously and sub-consciously you want to emulate them.

I once worked with a boss who never seemed to dress to the level at which we thought he should...his employees always dressed in a more business-like manner than he did. We once tried to gently take him aside and respectfully suggest how he might try to tighten up his wardrobe a bit and he said, "Thanks, guys, but I never thought very much about the way I dressed." There was a brief pause and we heard someone in the group (I'm not naming names) say under his breath, "Neither do we."

Best

AA

[Blackrose87]

Interesting that you should mention the proliferation of the tweed flat caps at the pub on Friday nights....going downtown for the Chicago St, Patrick's Day Parade, I was on the train with thousands (no exaggeration) of teen agers who must be, at this point, at least fifth or sixth generations removed from The Auld Sod and just about every one of them was wearing a flat cap. This must be the "uniform" that certifies that you're Irish...or at least as Irish as these young dudes are. I suppose that the assumption is that ALL tweed MUST come from Ireland so it's the mark of a True Irishman (really...this is the way these folks think, I am not, as Dave Barry says, making this up). Never mind that if you looked at the labels in these hats, you'd find that 99% of them were Made In China.

Weird...but it beats seeing them in the green plastic derbies...so it's an improvement...if a dubious one...

Best

AA

Well, they sound a lot better dressed than the typical Weegie teenger

[MacSpadger]

That ages you! Dunn & Co went out of business in 1996 (?) .

Ach, I'm all deflated now. I was looking forward to a spending spree when my pension kicks in.

[eaglemo]

Wear what feels good to you, but I'd take a Balmoral along too!

[ForresterModern]

Well, they sound a lot better dressed than the typical Weegie teenger

Is that the Burberry plaid? If so this is one expensively outfitted "Ned".

[Blackrose87]

Is that the Burberry plaid? If so this is one expensively outfitted "Ned".

Burberry is worn quite a lot by neds here (or chavs in England). I'm no expert, but I'd say 99% of the products are fake.

[O'Callaghan]

Burberry is worn quite a lot by neds here (or chavs in England). I'm no expect, but I'd say 99% of the products are fake.

You can get kilts in Thomson Camel tartan, which is one stripe different than Burberry and not considered counterfeit. Probably you can get a lot of other garments in that tartan, oddly not most frequently sold to actual members of the Thomson clan!

[Mr.Charles Anthony]

Readers;
I wear a black/white tweed 'newsboy cap' ( 6 panel top with a button to the center), it looks like the english flat cap, but it is not. I also added a ribbon tie to the back-as in a Glengarry/Balmoral. This is a great hatt for informal use, if you have to, you can stuff it in a pocket! I save my Old Style Scots Broadbonnet for 'formal use'
But the advice given is sound- wear any hatt you like(I would avoid anything like a John Wayne hatt- it is too close, in the publick mind-to a "Midnight Cowboy" in a kilt, to suit me! Unless of course, you have a buckboard & horse, and wear all three at the same time.)

[Dale-of-Cedars]

I picked up a tweed flat cap on eBay; an olive Failsworth*, that goes wonderfully with a L.L.Bean tweed blazer I found.

Worn it a couple of times with the kilt, though I'm still pining for a proper bonnet...

*Failsworth Hats (est. 1903) is still up and running, and is named for the textile mill-town it is situated in, outside Manchester, and has at least one Scottish connection: "In 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie stayed overnight at the Bulls Head public house." - which I guess is equivalent to the USA's "{President So-and-so} slept here."