Proper Funeral Jacket.

[PEEDYC]

I wear my dark grey tweed Argyle for funerals. I also wear a bronze coloured buckle on my belt which is no so "in your face" as the shiny silver ones. I wear a black or sometimes white shirt, black tie and black hose. I normally get a "thank you" and or "nice to see someone making an effort". I feel that the Argyle with silver buttons is a bit too dressy for that sort of occasion. Unfortunately I am having to wear this more and more nowadays.

[pascs]

The feeling of traditionalists in Scotland is that black jackets are not suitable for outdoor or daytime wear, and tweed is preferred, be it charcoal or Lovat or what have you. They think it odd that Americans nearly universally wear black tuxedos for outdoor and daytime weddings.

That is not the experience that I have from where I live in Scotland. The majority of men had only one kilt jacket and this was usually black and would be worn to all occasions. Many weddings that I went to, including my own, the majority of men wore black kilt jackets regardless of the time of day. It is only recently that the charcoal jacket has started to become popular at weddings and I would say was started by the younger generation looking for something less formal than black. This is just my experience and could well be different in other parts of Scotland.

[Nylo]

Thanks for the responses. Charcoal tweed it is, though I doubt I would go any lighter in color. Ive always felt the Argyll has a bit too much bling for such an occasion.

Nylo

[Jock Scot]

Tweed argyll(or any other style of tweed day jacket) every time. With a white shirt and black(not a bow) tie. In our part of the world the tweed would be mainly of any combination of greens and browns you can imagine. Black/charcoal/grey tweed is not versitile enough for us so it is rarely seen worn by the locals, but interestingly the black tweed is very handy for picking out the visitors to the sad event and does give us a clue when starting up a conversation, as one does at these sad events, with strangers.

I am not sure if they can still be found, but try and seek out(google?) the pictures of Chief John MacLeod of MacLeod's funeral. You will get an idea of the various funeral kilt attire options that might give you some food for thought.

[OC Richard]

That is not the experience that I have from where I live in Scotland. The majority of men had only one kilt jacket and this was usually black and would be worn to all occasions.

This is very interesting, and possibly highlights older attitudes v newer attitudes, a change in style between generations, or what have you.

By the 1920s Highland Dress had become very compartmentalised/codified with a quite strict delineation between "day/outdoor" dress and "evening" dress. (Things were looser in the 19th century/early 20th century.)

So you have pronouncements, in print, from the 1920s and 1930s as to what is "correct" or "proper" and it is "Harris Tweed, Homespun, or other suitable Tweed, and Blues, Lovats, and Browns" for day/outdoor jackets and black is reserved for the evening.

Our own Jock Scot maintains these traditional attitudes (and he's not alone).

On the other hand, as a piper I have piped at many weddings here in California at which numerous Scottish family members have flown over from Scotland and brought their own Highland Dress with them, and nearly always it is black Argylls or black Prince Charlies, though the weddings are invariably during the day.

[Jock Scot]

OC R.

Just to be clear, I do wear a black barathea, silver buttoned-----------sometimes, to tone down things a tad, I swap the silver buttons for black ones--------- argyll for a formal(morning dress) day wedding(weddings are a day event in the UK). For anything else that is not a dress(formal) occasion, the Green/brown tweed argyll fits the bill.

[Tullibardine]

The tweed Argyll jacket is always in good form for any but the most formal daytime event. As said above, Argyll is a CUT, not a colour, and varies slightly from Crail (plain cuffs) and Braemar(mariner cuffs) styles. Charcoal tweed is perfect for funerals, even with the horrid plastic buttons that are now standard with them.