"Balmoral" Doublet Help?

[CMcG]

Buckles would most definitely go with your new jacket. You already have the full length diced hose, by the look of your pic. They are meant for full evening dress, as is your doublet. Usually buckles are worn on a "bar buckle" type shoe, like the one in the picture.

I've never seen buckles attached to Ghillie Brogues in real life, but there are vintage photos of older generation, (Victorian & Edwardian) , kilt wearers doing so. Maybe nowadays not many would notice the difference, to be honest. The Irish guards wear buckles attached to ordinary brogues via a plastic tongue that fixes under the laces.

To buy an actual pair of buckled brogues is a very expensive business....

Yes indeed, my dice hose are full length and I have been on the look out for bar and buckle brogues. Buying shoes without trying them (i.e. on the internet) is a much riskier prospect than a jacket and my budget for an item that I probably won't get much use out of is very small...

It seems like with a doublet, buckles are really the way to go. Attaching buckles to my secondhand ghillie brogues was my solution to having really dressy shoes. As you say, they are an older style but I have seen at least a few pictures of them in more recent times than the Edwardian era. Hopefully they don't seem too historical

Here is the thread about my buckle ghillie project with pictures and discussion:
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...ization-67462/

I think we have a trans-Alantic misunderstanding here. In UK terms Highland Clans are correct. The doublet is normally for formal white tie events and in this particular case, black tie events, whilst still formal, is less so.

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For formal kilt day attire(morning coat equivalent) the black barathea, silver buttoned argyll fits the bill with a traditional tie. However the same argyll will get you by with modest adjustments to one's attire to the less formal black tie, evening events.

Thank you Jock, that really clears things up; I forgot that in more traditional dress codes white tie = formal and black tie = semi-formal! Comparable to how the black barathea Argyll can be dressed up or down, I imagine there would be some difference in how a Balmoral doublet would be worn for white or black tie?

Highland Clans suggests wearing it open for less formal (i.e. black tie), perhaps with nicely polished oxfords, black self-tie bow tie, waistcoat or waist plate belt (not both!), dress sporran, solid hose, fold down collar white formal shirt, etc.

For white tie I could wear it buttoned up like Rothesay, but with buckle ghillies because I don't have bar and buckle brogues. I might even be able to make better use of my dad's old horse hair sporran, which I have worn on occasion for black tie, but in retrospect may have been a bit over the top. Put all that together with diced or Argyle hose, black bow tie, and a wing collar shirt (though the Duke's is fold down collar?), and I'll be ready to do it up! Not that I have any upcoming white tie events... but "if you build it, they will come"