Cumberbun with a kilt?

[billmcc]

Has anyone tried wearing a cumberbun (and a formal jacket) with a kilt?

I finally found where my DW packed away my US Air Force mess dress uniform. This formal outfit has a short jacket, which is like the Eton jacket some members recently purchased, so it will work well with a kilt. However, a cumberbun, instead of a vest/waistcoat, is also part of the uniform and I am undecided whether it would look good with a kilt or not.

I would post a picture of this combination, but I haven't found the cumberbun yet. I am trying to decide if I should buy another cumberbun or try to find a vest to go with the jacket.

What do you think?

[Colin]

Has anyone tried wearing a cumberbun (and a formal jacket) with a kilt?

I finally found where my DW packed away my US Air Force mess dress uniform. This formal outfit has a short jacket, which is like the Eton jacket some members recently purchased, so it will work well with a kilt. However, a cumberbun, instead of a vest/waistcoat, is also part of the uniform and I am undecided whether it would look good with a kilt or not.

I would post a picture of this combination, but I haven't found the cumberbun yet. I am trying to decide if I should buy another cumberbun or try to find a vest to go with the jacket.

What do you think?

I guess it would all depend on the colour of the cumberbund. Personally I would think that if your kilt is a traditional style kilt (worn at the natural waist) that the rise of the kilt would work fine on it's own. I personally prefer the look of a waistcoat. Mind you I bartended for years at a wedding reception hall and had to wear a teal bow tie and cumberbund (yuck...). If you want an affordable waistcoat to go with your formal jacket, head down to a local tuxedo rental shop. At the end of their busy season (grads, new years) they usually sell off stock for dirt cheap. You can likely pick up a PC style waistcoat for next to nothing. I bought a black argyle style vest for $20 a few years ago and it worked great until I got my argyle jacket and waistcoat. A lot of deals to be had. I would even phone around and see if they are doing a clear out right now.

[James]

Going back about forty years, I recall a chum wearing a cummerbund with his kilt: and memory suggests that it looked smart.

James

[davedove]

In my mind, it would seem to me that a cumberbund of an appropriate color would look okay with a kilt, until I try to picture it with a sporran as well. I don't know how that look would work.

[billmcc]

One reason I am considering a cumberbun is I live in Florida, where the heat and humidity are terrible during the summer months. A cumberbun would be much cooler than a waistcoat.

The jacket and cumberbun would be dark blue and matched up with a traditional kilt in a suitable tartan, such as the Scots American here:
http://scottishkilts.net/products/5_...yard_kilt.html

[Shay]

(Pssst- it's Cummerbund.)

[macwilkin]

I've seen it done before, and to me, it doesn't look good -- but I don't like cumberbunds anyway. ;)

One point that has not been brought up, however, is the fact that that the cumberbund is part of a uniform, since this is a military "mess dress" jacket. A "mufti" or civilian waistcoat with a military jacket would look worse, INMHO, than the cumberbund.

I just had a look at a print that the Company of Military Historians did of the US Air Force Pipe Band in the 1960's, and one of the figures depicted is wearing a mess jacket with a cumberbund, so there is some prescendence for this practice.

Cheers,

Todd

[davedove]

(Pssst- it's Cummerbund.)

I've also seen it spelled as "cumberbund" many times.

From Miriam-Websters Online Dictionary:

Main Entry: cum·mer·bund
Pronunciation: 'k&-m&r-"b&nd, 'k&m-b&r-
Variant(s): also cum·ber·bund /'k&m-b&r-/
Function: noun
Etymology: Hindi kamarband, from Persian, from kamar waist + band band
: a broad waistband usually worn in place of a vest with men's dress clothes and adapted in various styles of women's clothes

[haukehaien]

It's a cumberbuzle. Dogbert told me so. You wear it around your head and clip your pens to it, so I don't see why it couldn't be worn with a waistcoat.

[MacConnachie]

Bill, was it an Air Force tartan cummerbund that you were looking for? I just saw one listed on eBay in the last week, and although the auction may have closed by now, I don't recall anyone having bid on it.

I bought a bow tie and cummerbund set in Mod.Htg.Robertson several years back from that famous-but-now-defunct Scottish Lion catalog store in New England. I wore it a couple of years at our Burns' Nichts, with my black barathea wool Argyll jacket (and the MH Robertson philabeg, of course), and it seemed to look alright, although optimally the length of the ties could have been a bit longer, in order to help keep it secured around my middle. After a few (or more than a few) drams of single malt and a bit of dancing, it just doesn't do to have white shirt - formal or otherwise - poking out from underneath the cummerbund. However, if one had the correct size of cummerbund, and were a bit more concerned about decorum - a la the non-kilted Irish-American who was at that moment critical of my appearance - I would expect one would have little difficulty effecting AND maintaining a rather smart look.