Lots of guys absolutely ABHOR what I'm going to write here, but I'm gonna do it anyway.

So you're going to Burns Night and you have to dress to the nines. You don't have a lot of money and there's no convenient place to rent the usual stuff. You have a nice kilt and a pair of dress shoes. You have a nice sporran and a nice pair of kilt hose. Whatcha' gonna do for the rest of it? Well, here you go.

http://www.uniformalwearhouse.com

This place sells formalwear to people like waiters and hotel staff. Is their stuff the be-all end-all, tailored wool la-de-dah? No. Do they sell stuff which is clearly waitstaff stuff, like canvas vests that guys wear at the local bistro? yes. However, is that ALL they sell?

No.

So here's what you do.

1. Dress shirt. Do you like a standard collar or a wing collar? You pick. $13.
http://www.uniformalwearhouse.com/ap...rts_index.html

2. That dress shirt is going to need studs and cufflinks. You pick, black or gray. $3
http://www.uniformalwearhouse.com/ap...edojewel1.html

3. a bow tie. Solid color, please to match your tartan. Get the "unisex bow tie" which is available in about a flumptillion colors. $2
http://www.uniformalwearhouse.com/ap...cces50col.html

4. The jacket. Of course you want a nifty Prince Charlie, but you don't have $230 to drop on one of those babies. So go look at the Single Button Eaton Jacket with the shawl lapel. THE SINGLE BUTTON, not the three-button Eton. The three-button looks like a grownup version of the little kids Eton jacket that was popular in the 20's. Price, $37

http://www.uniformalwearhouse.com/ap...ojackets4.html

The Eton jacket is shortwaisted, it look quite nice with a kilt.

5. A three-button vest. Prince Charlies are worn with vests, not cummerbunds, so you can get really close to that look by getting the three-button, backless tuxedo vest.

http://www.uniformalwearhouse.com/ap...sts_solid.html

Now, how to really finish this off? Go buy some nice pewter buttons like these:



or these...



and replace the black satin buttons on the jacket and waistcoat with some of the pewter ones. It's only an hour or 90 minutes work to replace the buttons. You could buy extra buttons and add them to the jacket, rather like how a Prince Charlie has extra buttons.



Total cost should be about $48 for the shirt, tie, cufflinks/studs, jacket and vest. Add in another $12 for the buttons and you are set.

Again, this is NOT the same as the full-on wool deal Prince Charlie and waistcoat, but I promise you that it looks a whole, whole lot better than most of the nay-sayers are probably going to come in here and tell you that it will look. I've seen this stuff in person, I've worn a lot of it and it looks pretty darned good, especially for wearing to one or two black-tie events per year.

Caveat: If you go to 6-7-8+ black-tie events each year, then it's probably worth your while to spring for the wool PC and all the kit. ---- but if you DON'T....