Help with white tie

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

I have posted this elsewhere but they say a picture tells a thousand words -



This is full levee dress which is the uber formal version of highland dress.

Back in the good old days when gentlemen were gentlemen and servants tugged their forelocks, levees were held quarterly at Buckingham Palace. These were strictly stag events, and the purpose was to be "presented" formally, at court, to the Monarch. In order to attend you had to be introduced by two gentlemen previously "presented" at court. Needless to say, it took an awful lot of brown-nosing in all the right circles to be presented at a levee.

The rules of dress were excruciatingly exact down to the smallest detail. Basically three forms of attire were approved to be worn at a levee: Full Dress Uniform (either civil or military); Court Dress (velvet coat and waistcoat, cut steel buttons, knee britches, black silk hose, patent leather pumps with cut steel bows, and court sword with cut steel hilt and black patent leather scabbard); or the Highland Attire as depicted above. (Clergy had their own rules as laid down by the Lord Chamberlain's office.)

I am not totally sure of the date, however I believe the last Levee was in either 1948 or 1954-- perhaps someone with more time on their hands than I have would care to look it up?

Missing from the above illustration are the regulation pistols and powder horn-- although these may have been dispensed with post WWII. And the sharp-eyed amongst you will have no doubt noticed that the sword is sheathed in a leather scabbard.