Black tie, Prince Charlie, but the tie is DECIDEDLY not black

[jsrnephdoc]

One of the things that makes kilting fun for me is the opportunity to tell stories about what I’m wearing; e.g.the very humble origins of virtually everything that now is considered Scottish “dress-up” wear and cuisine; for example, the kilt and the plaid, Ghillie Brogue shoes, the knife in your sock, and even that great Scottish delicacy, Haggis. My interest in spinning such tales was only amplified when I spent just under 2 weeks in Scotland in August 2023. This year I yearn to go back, but if at ALL possible, to combine my trip with a few days in Paris to visit the gloriously resurrected Notre Dame cathedral.

And now the Bow Tie Club retailer has fed those aspirations with a bow celebrating the Cathedral’s Rose Window. One problem with that, however, is that it’s hard to imagine a tartan (at least not one in MY closet) that would “sync” with that bow tie, except possibly accenting a Prince Charlie jacket:

But that still leaves addressing the issue of conflict between tie and tartan. One POSSIBILITY, I suppose, is my new Lunar Tartan Kilt, which could be described as “grayscale.” Black, a range of grays, and one narrow red stripe.

Opinions?

[Kitfoxdave]

To go with a multicolor tie as the rose window, perhaps the Black Shadow tartan... like a chameleon it just goes with anything...

[figheadair]

I feel you might be over thinking this. It's not something that I can anyone in Scotland giving much thought to.

[OC Richard]

The humble origins of virtually everything that now is considered Scottish “dress-up” wear...the kilt and the plaid, Ghillie Brogue shoes...

If by "dress-up wear" you mean Highland Evening Dress, I will point out that plaids went out of fashion over a century ago, and Ghillie Brogues have never been part of it (except when having incongruous buckles stuck on).

Interestingly, Ghillie Brogues don't appear to have had a humble origin, but were apparently cooked up by a trio Englishmen who met at the Gaelic Society of London, Robert Jones and the brothers John and Charles Allen.

1845 was a big year for inventing stuff about Highland Dress for these guys, as in that year Jones (under the name McIan) created fanciful illustrations of "ancient Highlanders" for the book Clans of the Scottish Highlands and the Allen brothers (under the name Sobieski Stuart) published their own book The Costume of the Clans which had even more fanciful illustrations.

Both books put the hitherto unseen Ghillies on the feet of their "ancient Highlanders".