Casey,

You have the basics of a very handsome outfit. The Argyll jacket looks great with black tie.

Since you're going to be a student (i.e. one of the deserving poor) for the next several years, I would hesitate to recommend rental. Rather, spend a little money wisely, and you'll have your own! You should be able to budget for a modest upgrade periodically, and then you'll be ready for any formal or coat-and-tie event.

1. Minimal upgrade: black sporran and belt, say, from Stillwater at $17 and $23 plus shipping. That would just about fix you for this event. The sporran comes with a leather and chain belt, which would even be preferable for the formal event. You'll want a leather strap for daytime wear, you could also check your local Target/wherever in men's and ladies' belts. The chain belt itself can be upgraded/replaced with some dog chain and 2 snap-hooks.

Celtic Croft, for one, has an economy dress sporran for $75, but you can put this off for some time by using the black day sporran. In a year or so, you might be able to budget for a better one. Or, the SWK belt and this sporran might be the ticket for this year.

2. If you upgrade your shirt, find some black or dark cufflinks and studs to go with it. Is your wing-collar shirt the convertible type (which can use button or studs/links)? If so, the studs dress it up considerably. If you borrow studs from a family member, be aware that old sets have 3 studs, and new shirts call for 4! A convertible shirt could get around this problem. Sometimes a new shirt will come with little thow-away studs and links; if so, there's no reason not to use them until you get better ones. myowntuxedo.com usually has used sets for $5. Generally for black tie, you want black studs/links; but I certainly will wear my dad's dark mother-of-pearl set.

If you don't upgrade, perhaps you could simply make some arm garters as you would for garter flashes, from a little elastic and Velcro. That would keep too much sleeve from showing.

Look for shirts on sale, rental outfits selling old stock, or budget outlets like uniformalwearhouse.com myowntuxedo.com Ebay stores such as Monkeysuits.

3. If you get a vest, you won't need the belt right away, but it's hard to go wrong with the SWK dress belt. It looks fine, and will work for coat-and-tie purposes.

Now I believe there is a school of thought that the Argyll plus black tie looks best with a PC-type (3-button) vest. One of the economical formal vests might fit in. uniformalwearhouse.com has backless, black vests (like the white ones worn with white tie) for $25-30 in either wool or satin. The satin one might avoid a color mismatch, I don't know how risky the black wool combination would be. In other words, the satin vest would be shiny, like the lapels of an old-fashioned tux jacket.

Adding a 5-button Argyll style vest (now or later) would give you a very versatile outfit. If you get it from the same place the jacket came from, then hopefully the fabric will match up. A nice PC or Argyll style vest can be yours for about $120, but it may be too late to order it for a May event. If in a couple of years' time you have both vests to match the Argyll, you'd be well set up until such time as you can buy a PC or doublet. I think the color matching of a PC vest to your jacket would be safer, ask your vendor.

This is too hard: you could pick:

SWK black belt, Celtic Croft economy dress sporran about $100
SWK sporran, black backless vest about $60?
Add an Argyll or PC vest (if there's time), SWK sporran about $150.
SWK sporran and belt, if you find a deal on a new shirt maybe $90 all told.


So, figure your budget, choose things you'll wear in the future, and above all: have fun!