Semi-dress sporrans

[RichardtheLarge]

Asking semi-dress sporran enthusiasts: when do you find yourself wearing one? I have a hard time imagining what I would use it for as I have brown and black leather sporrans for daywear and a silver cantle fur sporran for the evening. Can you think of a specific moment when the semi-dress sporran really uniquely shines, or is it meant to be worn all the time to save the bother of switching?

[FossilHunter]

Asking semi-dress sporran enthusiasts: when do you find yourself wearing one? I have a hard time imagining what I would use it for as I have brown and black leather sporrans for daywear and a silver cantle fur sporran for the evening. Can you think of a specific moment when the semi-dress sporran really uniquely shines, or is it meant to be worn all the time to save the bother of switching?

I am not an enthusiast nor do I own one but I often see them advertised as being an option for doing day and formal while only having to own the one sporran.

[McMurdo]

I don't really like them as to my eye they are neither fish nor fowl. Having said that I was recently given one that belonged to my girlfriend's grandfather. It is a quality piece from Nicoll Brothers, I have only worn it for a few funerals. Here is a photo.

[ShaunMaxwell]

Someone gave me one as a gift. It's a nice sporran, but I've never worn it. I, too, will be interested in responses to this thread!

SM

[Tarheel]

Once a year I wear a sporran during the day while tending and showing an antique car for "home coming" football games at the local university. We (the wife and I) are invited to functions of the "top brass" of the university after the game. Without changing attire, I wear the same sporran for the entire day. It is a piece that I made for this particular purpose. These are not black tie moments but the dress is expected to be smart and professional (as images are vital for fund raising). However, these are parties of celebration or for consolation. Drinks are supplied to all attending.

[OC Richard]

My first awareness of these things was seeing the classic tri-fold photo spread of sporran styles that a number of makers used throughout the 1960s through the 1980s which had a few hybrid sporrans created by

1) putting Evening Dress sporran tassels on a Day Dress sporran.

2) putting the metal plate from a Prince Charlie Evening Dress sporran on the flap of a Day Dress sporran.

I don't know if a couple styles like this are enough to establish a new sporran genre, or if they might be regarded as outliers to the traditional (and still existing) Evening/Day dichotomy.

The tradition: Evening, and Day... and never the twain shall meet. (1936)

No leather appears on Evening sporrans, apart from the cantle liner.



Note fur appears on Day sporrans from the get-go. Also note that all Day sporrans are brown.



The classic tri-fold photo spread (c1960?)

Evening and Day remain intact.

Here are traditional sealskin Evening sporrans with silver cantles.

Except for centre bottom, an outlier, a Hunting sporran switched from brown to black, with a silver Evening cantle stuck on top. This has become the standard Pipe Band sporran today.



Classic brown Day Dress sporrans.



More Evening sporrans, but a few have a twist: the leather targe, borrowed from the Hunting sporran, has been tacked onto some of the Evening sporrans:



And now more hybrid things!

The top row has the plates from the Prince Charlie Evening sporrans above tacked onto the flaps of Day sporrans.

A couple Day sporrans with fur fronts (which in the past have wholly been Day sporrans) now have Evening Dress tassels attached.

I should note that the leather has been changed from the traditional brown, to black, on these hybrid sporrans.



I'm fascinated by the odd sporran centre bottom. I've never seen one in the flesh. It's like fur grew all over a leather sporran.

[OC Richard]

I was recently given one that belonged to my girlfriend's grandfather. It is a quality piece from Nicoll Brothers

Lovely. I love Nicoll Brothers sporrans!

It's called BT/SC in the classic tri-fold photo spread above.

[RichardtheLarge]

Thank you OC Richard for a fantastic post full of information. The timeline you’re presenting here mostly reinforces my impression of the semi-dress sporran as neither fish nor fowl. In fairness, though, I sometimes wear my black leather piper’s sporran with targe and silver cantle with black tie (a “juxtaposition” of day and evening elements, in a sense). I tend to do this in settings where fur may not necessarily go over well. It’s a curious situation when leather provokes no controversy whatsoever and fur does, but that is sometimes the case in my experience.

I understand, too, that full mask sporrans are acceptable at all levels of formality, but somehow a brown fur sporran looks off to me with the otherwise black and silver color palette of eveningwear. I guess I absorbed the Anglo discomfort with mixing black and brown somewhere along the way.

In general, too, I find the “D Flap” sporran style a bit off with eveningwear, even presented in fur and silver hardware. I just associate that shape very specifically with day sporrans, although some of these in the photos are very handsome. I’m also intrigued by the day sporran that grew fur! This one I would actually consider wearing during the day and evening, as there is plenty of precedent for a daytime fur sporran and no apparent conflict of metal colors. It’s the closest thing here to a genuine bugbear.

[tpa]

My oldest (50+ years) sporran would, these days. probably classify as semi-dress (if such a thing exists - sounds like half undressed) -but for most of those 50 years it was my only sporran. Importantly, my wife prefers it to the other ones I have, so when out with her, I more often than not wear that. However it is slightly smaller than the average sporran so I do have others.


My father's plain brown one had tassels, but they made such a racket when walking that I removed them. It was wearing it that convinced me that tassels on plain leather sporrans was not a good idea. However removing them took a lot of the character away from the sporran, so I may put them back.
I have experimented with glueing the tassels in place, but that was not a huge success. Some would stick better than others so one or another would invariably make a break for it!


One of the attractions of my original sporran for my wife is the fur, so I attempted to recreate that on my other slightly larger sporrans, 2 of which have tassels so the fur also deadens the sound. I wear those on any occasion when I want more carrying capacity and/or am out with my wife. One is brown and one is black so I can co-ordinate belt, sporran and shoe colours as required.


If I am out on my own, usually when walking in the local hills and woods or out working, then it is usually a light plain leather modified "Rob Roy" sporran I wear. Heavier sporrans with the cheap acrylic kilts I wear for working around the house are not especially comfortable.


I do have a full dress sporran, but normally only only wear that with my Montrose Doublet.


So, for me, the conclusion is that there really is no such thing as a semi-dress sporran, there are a range of sporrans, any of whch are suited to virtually all occasions except for formal dress events, which are very few and far between these days. Like kilts they can be dressed up or down as the occasion demands.