Can we define THCD?

[creagdhubh]

This guy's sporran is too low and his bow tie is pretty crooked. He could also stand to shorten those sleeves a touch and show a little cuff for Pete's sake... what a slob.

Nathan, in that photo you're almost a dead ringer for this chap (different tartan and jacket/doublet, I know)! Well, perhaps I should say that the chap on the right is actually more of a dead ringer for Cary Grant! Hahaha!

All joking aside, even though it's obviously an advertisement from the 1950s (from an R.W. Forsyth catalogue to be exact, as it's in my possession), I do believe the illustration adequately demonstrates both white and black tie Highland Dress with the Regulation Doublet. Though, this can be confusing in itself when you look at the ad, since both men are obviously at the same event, yet one is wearing black tie and the other white. Understandably, the purpose of this advertisement is to advertise and market a particular Highland Dress company, so artistic licence in regards to the context of the subject matter is definitely utilised. It is in my honest opinion that ads such as these from, yes, a bygone era, speaks to the heart of what traditional Highland Dress can, and arguably should look like - with room for personal flair/preferences, of course. "Variation upon a theme," seems to be an appropriate term amongst us traditionalists.