Opinions pse: Besides the metal cantle, what else defines a "Dress" vs "Day" Sporran?

[OC Richard]

About "what defines a Dress v Day sporran?" to me it depends on what time period is under discussion.

Up until at least the mid-18th century sporrans were brown leather, and it seems that the same sporran was worn in all sorts of dress.

Throughout the 19th century hairy sporrans were worn in all sorts of dress, from the most informal to the most formal. There didn't seem to really be much in the way of strict Day and Evening categories, yet with brown and grey tweed jackets the hair sporrans were often grey or brown hair and tended to have leather cantles, either all-leather or leather with metal rim. With the dressier black jackets the sporrans often were white hair with metal-rimmed leather cantles or all-metal cantles (white metal). So sporran categories can be detected, though they weren't strictly followed.

Beginning in the early years of the 20th century the long hair sporrans fell from favour and new smaller pocket-shaped sporrans appeared in two clearly-defined categories 1) brown leather body, sometimes with fur front, with matching brown leather flap and tassels for Day Dress and 2) sealskin body with silver cantle with chained tassels for Evening Dress.

By the latter 20th century these strict categories were beginning to get blurred a bit, with Day sporrans made of black leather, with Day sporrans having silver Evening Dress cantles stuck on them, with Evening sporrans having leather targes stuck on them, and so forth. With some of these mongrel sporrans one can scarcely say whether they're Day or Evening. It's part of a larger breakdown of the dichotomy between Day and Evening dress which was so clear in the 1920s and for decades after.


Many of the sporrans discussed earlier in this thread didn't exist 100 years ago and aren't part of Traditional Highland Dress, so speaking of Day and Evening categories begins to lose purpose.

Hunting Sporrans were originally brown and made entirely of leather. I don't know just when they started to be made in black and started having the silver cantles from Evening sporrans tacked on top, possibly around the 1960s. But in the 1990s they became overwhelmingly popular with Pipe Bands- you could see all 14 bands in a competition heat wearing them- and just now they're finally starting to lose their mojo somewhat.

They're part-and-parcel with the modern Pipe Band costume that swept in in the 1990s:

-Black Glengarry

-Black Argyll jacket

-black hunting sporran with silver Evening cantle

-pure white "piper socks"

-Ghillie brogues.

To me, personally, those sporrans look like what they are: the traditional Hunting Sporran done in an untraditional colour, with an Evening cantle stuck on top to add some bling. Neither fish nor fowl, as someone put it.

Nowadays I'm not quite sure what's going on with Highland Dress. Many people follow the norms of the 100-year-old Traditional Highland Dress. Many other people freely mix costume-items which wouldn't have been mixed in the past. I don't think it matters much, but I can't help but view things through the lens of the past.