Hello rabble...

I am a long-time lurker, first time poster. This summer, I will be attending the national convention with my fraternity (I have served on the board of directors for 8 years, and am currently the National President). We are a gender-inclusive fraternity, so we have female members and members who do not identify within the gender binary in addition to the male members typically associated with the term fraternity. Our national convention ends with a 'formal' awards banquet. Note that I have used both the meaningless term 'semi-formal' in the title and 'formal' (again in quotation marks) to describe the event. Since we are a fraternity, most of our membership who will be attending are current college students, although we will have a fairly strong representation of alumni this year, for our 100th anniversary. As is the case the world over, dress codes are evolving toward a more casual meaning, hence my use of 'semi-formal' (slightly tongue-in-cheek).

Although we term the event 'formal,' most will come dressed in what some may term semi-formal or perhaps more accurately, 'business attire.' For males, this will generally mean a shirt and tie at a minimum, sport coats for many, suits for others. I would be surprised to see a tuxedo, which would largely be considered over dressing, though it has happened in the past. There will likely be a bow tie (probably not black) or two worn in lieu of a long tie, probably at least one of our board members will do so--it's kind of his thing. Women tend to wear cocktail dresses of varying length, but mostly slightly above the knee (lots of LBDs). Some women will wear slightly more formal evening gowns, sometimes designer dresses rented in a manner not dissimilar to a tuxedo or kilt rental--two of our women board members tend to take this approach, and our Executive Director tends to wear an ankle-length dress, probably because it is simply an excuse to do so. In general, our board of directors and many of our professional staff and alumni will tend toward the dressy end of the spectrum, with dark suits and more formal dresses. We may see a military uniform or two as well. Our fraternity colors are purple and gold, so that will be well-represented in dresses, perhaps some shirts, and certainly ties (we tend more toward purple than gold). We do not have an official tie. In the past, I have typically worn a dark suit (black or charcoal) with a white shirt and a purple or purple and gold tie. One year I wore a purple bow tie. Hopefully, that provides enough context to understand the level of dress expected.

This year, I plan to wear my kilt (MacDonald of the Isles--sometimes described as MacDonald Lord of the Isle, Hunting Modern, which is predominantly forest or tartan green, with navy, and black and an overcheck consisting of red and white stripes. Not dissimilar to MacKenzie modern in terms of color and thread count). I will likely be the only one in THCD attending (my wife--also a member of the fraternity--will be wearing a long dress and a tartan sash to match). I think the BBSBA with matching 5-button vest will be my jacket choice for the evening. A PC would be over the top, and while a dark tweed would perhaps work very well, I do not own one. I realize the BBSBA is probably at the dressy end of the spectrum, and I'm fine with that. I will probably wear a white french-cuff shirt, but am open to alternative suggestions here based on the color coordination questions I am asking below. I will likely wear my black ghillies--yes, I know that nicely polished oxfords/wingtips would serve as well (some might argue better). I will wear a long tie and solid color hose... but what color(s)?

I have reviewed many threads with pictures of examples for various contexts, and find them immensely helpful (thanks to Panache/McMurdo and Nathan and Jock Scot and many others for all your helpful pictures on these various threads). So I think I'm more or less in the ballpark, but I would still like some advice.

My questions:

1. What sporran should I wear? Is a dress sporran (fur, cantle) appropriate in this context? Would a black daywear sporran (leather, with or without cantle) work as well/better? Jock Scot, I'm looking at you... though others' advice is certainly both welcome and appreciated.

2. I don't want to be matchy-matchy with my hose, tie, etc., a lesson I've learned from reading these forums for some time. My question is one of contrasting versus clashing. Would a purple tie (perhaps with or without gold/yellow stripes) work? The opinion of the traditionalists here seems to be that a regimental tie (diagonally striped) of any color scheme is fine to wear with your kilt that should be, in this context, treated simply as any pair of pants for the purposes of coordinating a tie. With the vest, I think this probably is a non-issue, but thought I'd throw it out there anyway.

3. Related to 2 above, how would you suggest picking hose and flashes/garter ties to try to work some purple (and/or purple and gold) into this outfit? I have thought about bottle green hose with purple flashes (subdued)... purple hose with gold flashes (bold, perhaps bordering on clownish)... and everything in between... or just skipping the purple/gold below the knee altogether and doing something (more traditional? or perhaps more commonly seen in the highlands?) like bottle green, navy, or charcoal hose with a red/claret garter tie or flashes. I don't want to look like the Joker or the Incredible Hulk by mixing up green and purple too heavily, and, as noted above, I am not trying to be matchy-matchy with the hose/flashes/tie, but I would like to work at least a little purple into my ensemble. If that is best accomplished by simply wearing a purple tie, I can work with that.

So this is quite lengthy for a first post, but in reading some threads of others seeking advice, it seems that there are often requests for more information, and I'm trying to provide all that up front. Anyway, thanks in advance. I realize I'm overthinking this, but that's kind of what this forum is for, no?