Fit Check - Burns Supper 2026

[bookish]

I am attending a Burns supper with the Detroit St. Andrew's society. I emailed about dress code, and was told that many will be wearing Argyll jackets, but a nice sweater would do. So, there isn't a strict dress code. I thought that I'd order an off the rack Argyll and try it out. I did not like it! The Argyll is going back, and I am planning on wearing a contemporary kilt jacket that I ordered from McCall's a little over a year ago. I'd like to know what others think of the ensemble for a Burns supper.

The jacket needs a little tailoring to shorten the sleeves a bit, and maybe take in the sides a touch. That's a future me problem.

I've got a pocket square coming that is a light blue with a red trim. I almost went with a light yellow pocket square, since the medallions in the tie are light blue with a yellow center.

The kilt hose are bright red, and I don't often wear hose that don't relate directly to the main color of the tartan, but I thought I'd give it a go this time around. I have navy hose and red flashes (which is what I usually wear with this kilt), so if the hose offends, I have backup. I can also wear these ancient blue flashes with the navy hose if I need to sink into the background a touch more. Though, I'm tall, and that's not easy to do.

fit_check_burns_jan_2025.jpg

[FossilHunter]

I am attending a Burns supper with the Detroit St. Andrew's society. I emailed about dress code, and was told that many will be wearing Argyll jackets, but a nice sweater would do. So, there isn't a strict dress code. I thought that I'd order an off the rack Argyll and try it out. I did not like it! The Argyll is going back, and I am planning on wearing a contemporary kilt jacket that I ordered from McCall's a little over a year ago. I'd like to know what others think of the ensemble for a Burns supper.

The jacket needs a little tailoring to shorten the sleeves a bit, and maybe take in the sides a touch. That's a future me problem.

I've got a pocket square coming that is a light blue with a red trim. I almost went with a light yellow pocket square, since the medallions in the tie are light blue with a yellow center.

The kilt hose are bright red, and I don't often wear hose that don't relate directly to the main color of the tartan, but I thought I'd give it a go this time around. I have navy hose and red flashes (which is what I usually wear with this kilt), so if the hose offends, I have backup. I can also wear these ancient blue flashes with the navy hose if I need to sink into the background a touch more. Though, I'm tall, and that's not easy to do.

fit_check_burns_jan_2025.jpg

Those red hose are great. I’d stick with them.

[Jock Scot]

Oh gosh! Where do I start?

Firstly, matching ones assorted kilt attire colours is not an issue! Most experienced kilt wearers don't bother too much about matching hose to ties and so on. Yes some colours do go better with our kilt, but it is a personal choice that comes with experience. Am I talking herasy here? Absolutely not! The Scots have been doing it for a very long time. There are pages and pages of past posts here on this website discussing this issue in thread after thread.

You need to also understand that kilt attire does not necessarily follow "Saxon" attire expectations either and yes, there are thread after thread after thread here, discussing this issue too! I will give you an example.

You were probably brought up with "Saxon" attire(a term coined by someone years ago) definitions for clothing expectations for certain events? So perhaps, you were brought up with the idea of tweed sports jackets, are for informal attire and slightly smarter than that? A suit for business and smart events but not formal events? And so on up the attire scale depending on the formality of the event?

Kilt attire follows a very different route! For example a tweed kilt jacket is not a sports jacket, it is in kilt terms, equivalent to a 'Saxon attire" suit. I could and probably should go on, but I think if you delve into the past threads of say, 10/15 or more years ago, you will find much interesting reading on the subject. I really have not got the "puff" in me these days to go too deeply into this subject any more. But in short, you need to re-adjust your thinking here as these clothing definitions and their differences are the cornerstones of understanding kilt attire.

Good luck!

[OC Richard]

I think your outfit is on the right track.

I really like the cut of that jacket/waistcoat, and your sporran; everything is elegant and understated.

The fact that above the knees everything is grey and blues, having red hose works really well.

There's only one thing that jumps out to my eye: the colour of the flashes. Having them match the lighter blue of the kilt is jarring somehow. What I would try first is dark blue, Navy blue.

About hose colour, and putting my historical/traditional hat on, what was done (no reason, it just "was done") in the traditional Highland Dress that became semi-standardised in the 1920s and was still in vogue when I started kiltwearing in the mid-1970s was to have the hose "tone with" the tweed of the jacket.

Writers mention this repeatedly and it's seen over and over in photos and catalogues throughout that period. So what did "tone with" mean, in practice? Generally it meant having the hose match, or nearly match, the tweed of the jacket.

Just about the time I started kiltwearing (1975) a new thing came into vogue: wearing offwhite/ecru hose with any tweed. After a decade or so a new twist was introduced, gleaming pure white hose.

Then the reaction to those things came into vogue, which was wearing anything BUT white or offwhite hose. The new vogue included wearing many colours that didn't match the tweed of the jacket: red, claret, yellow, Royal Blue, etc.

A kind of reverse-engineered set of guidelines appeared:

1) white and offwhite hose should not be worn.

2) the hose should never match the tweed of the jacket.

Knowing the history of the whole thing makes me take these recent rules with a grain of salt.

[bookish]

You need to also understand that kilt attire does not necessarily follow "Saxon" attire expectations either and yes, there are thread after thread after thread here, discussing this issue too! I will give you an example.

You were probably brought up with "Saxon" attire(a term coined by someone years ago) definitions for clothing expectations for certain events? So perhaps, you were brought up with the idea of tweed sports jackets, are for informal attire and slightly smarter than that? A suit for business and smart events but not formal events? And so on up the attire scale depending on the formality of the event?

Kilt attire follows a very different route! For example a tweed kilt jacket is not a sports jacket, it is in kilt terms, is equivalent to a 'Saxon attire" suit. I could and probably should go on, but I think if you delve into the past threads of say, 10/15 or more years ago, you will find much interesting reading on the subject. I really have not got the "puff" in me these days to go too deeply into this subject any more. But in short, you need to re-adjust your thinking here as these clothing definitions and their differences are the cornerstones of understanding kilt attire.

Good luck!

I truly appreciate the feedback! I see many great pictures on this site of the balanced look of kilted attire that don't fit what I grew up with as "traditional" (read "Saxon," if you will) menswear conventions.

I worked in food service (with a few career jaunts elsewhere) for nearly 20 years before I started my corporate career, and I used to hang out with the hipster crowd of service workers that managed to balance disparate visual elements in their clothes. I'm reminded of that to some degree with highlandwear.

Now that I'm a "respectable" middle-aged man, I'm looking for that balance of counter-culture and elegant that Highland dress communicates to me. You are right that I'm probably too concerned with matching, and fitting conventions of dress that my career has opened me up to.

As is my way, I'll be actively studying color and pattern as I move forward. Let's see where my personal style is next Burns Night!

[bookish]

Those red hose are great. I’d stick with them.

Thank you for your support! I feel tentative with my choices right now, but aim to change that.

[bookish]

I think your outfit is on the right track.

I really like the cut of that jacket/waistcoat, and your sporran; everything is elegant and understated.

The fact that above the knees everything is grey and blues, having red hose works really well.

There's only one thing that jumps out to my eye: the colour of the flashes. Having them match the lighter blue of the kilt is jarring somehow. What I would try first is dark blue, Navy blue.

About hose colour, and putting my historical/traditional hat on, what was done (no reason, it just "was done") in the traditional Highland Dress that became semi-standardised in the 1920s and was still in vogue when I started kiltwearing in the mid-1970s was to have the hose "tone with" the tweed of the jacket.

Writers mention this repeatedly and it's seen over and over in photos and catalogues throughout that period. So what did "tone with" mean, in practice? Generally it meant having the hose match, or nearly match, the tweed of the jacket.

Just about the time I started kiltwearing (1975) a new thing came into vogue: wearing offwhite/ecru hose with any tweed. After a decade or so a new twist was introduced, gleaming pure white hose.

Then the reaction to those things came into vogue, which was wearing anything BUT white or offwhite hose, including many colours that didn't match the tweed of the jacket: red, claret, yellow, Royal Blue, etc.

A kind of reverse-engineered set of guidelines appeared:

1) white and offwhite hose should not be worn.

2) the hose should never match the tweed of the jacket.

Knowing the history of the whole thing makes me take these recent rules with a grain of salt.

I love that I can benefit from others' experience here. Thank you for the feedback.

I have many pair of hose at this point: charcoal, gray, navy, "deep red", red, "nettle", and ecru.

I bought the ecru to see what all the fuss was about, and what is said generally seems to be true, so I don't know if I'll ever wear them!

I have definitely been thinking exclusively about "complementing" the kilt, though I think it is more appropriate to say "toning" with the kilt. I mostly wear kilts and tees with white socks and converse in the warmer months, and when I wear my "professional" clothes kilted, I'm just working from home and being camera-ready. No one at work sees anything beside my dress shirt, tie, and waistcoat.

If it's feasible, I'll see about new flashes. I don't yet have a full collection of options for flashes.

[OC Richard]

You're welcome!

I'm a fan of the shooting-socks garters by Bisley (and I'm sure other firms as well) where you get one set of garters and four sets of flashes giving four options for one price https://www.ebay.com/itm/401089540762

Here are two of the Bisley sets:



I have the set on the right, the colours in the photo are off, the top one isn't orange like that, but a muted red.

Then there's bottle green, Claret, and Ancient Blue.

[bookish]

You're welcome!

I'm a fan of the shooting-socks garters by Bisley (and I'm sure other firms as well) where you get one set of garters and four sets of flashes giving four options for one price https://www.ebay.com/itm/401089540762

Here are two of the Bisley sets:



I have the set on the right, the colours in the photo are off, the top one isn't orange like that, but a muted red.

Then there's bottle green, Claret, and Ancient Blue.

Thanks for the hot tip! I had actually wondered when looking at one of your photos how you got your garters to lay so flat!

[OC Richard]

You're very welcome!

I prefer the shooting sock garters, they're lower-maintenance than the traditional kilt-hose garter flashes, which need to be stored flat.

About the "tone with", their meaning was matching hose and tweed more or less, rather than coordinating/complimenting which is in vogue today.

I put together this collage a while back with numerous examples from the 1860s up to recently.