Black tie and white tie for kilts?

[Holcombe Thomas]

This is a great thread; I'm learning a lot.

To add to MacLowlife's comments regarding Full Dress and The Citadel, Full Dress is the "dressiest" uniform in the inventory. It is, however, the equivalent of a tuxedo in formality. One can wear it (and when I was a cadet there, I would have worn it) to a white tie event, but, as Spartan Tartan notes, it isn't that it's white tie, it's that everyone knows it's the best the cadet has. The fact that the coat is high-waisted and has short tails makes it fit in somewhat with white tie, though it isn't the equivalent.

[Nathan]

One should be careful not to confuse "White tie" with "Highland White Tie". Usually white tie and tails are an acceptable alternative at a Highland White Tie event but the opposite is not always the case. Don't wear a kilt to get the nobel prize.

One might be tempted to assume that the kilt is a below the waist thing and everything above the waist ought to be the same as with Saxon attire, but this is not reflective of the history or tradition as practiced in the Highlands. Jock Scot has pointed this out above.

If, as has been mentioned by others, the event calls for "White tie or Highland attire" or "White Tie or National Dress", one who chooses to wear Highland attire as indicated on the invitation should wear the most formal accessories, including:

Jabot, black bowtie, stock or white bowtie
Prince Charlie coatee or Formal doublet (In barathea or velvet)
Diced or Argyll hose
Opera/dance pumps, buckle brogues (patent leather or polished to a high gloss.)
Dress sporran (fur with metal cantle)

[Mike_Oettle]

While all this is most interesting, it is way out of my social sphere. I don’t even see myself wearing black tie (or its Highland equivalent) at any time in my life, let alone white tie.
But the picture of the dinner at Holyroodhouse is most interesting (for all that it has whiskers, so to speak, since Prince Charles was clearly a bachelor at the time).
I imagine he and his father decided together that one would wear a red kilt and white waistcoat, and the other a red waistcoat and an arisaid kilt.
I do like the red waistcoat, but I felt that his white sporran was a little lost against the arisaid sett.
Mike