THANK YOU for your input - see my comments in BLUE...
A tweed jacket is traditionally worn for that level of dress and covers everything from smart casual sports coat up to business/lounge suit equivalents.
Swappable buttons are a hack that could help you dress down your black jacket by putting on some leather-covered or horn buttons.
I like the idea of a grey tweed jacket, but before that i would do a vest, its too dang hot here in so cal to rock tweed but for 2 months a year. is a vest an acceptable alternative?
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You're welcome!
A vest with no jacket could work depending on what social circles you run in, but for more conservative dress codes you could look into a summer weight kilt jacket. I re-purposed an unlined cotton jacket from Forever 21 because it already had a cutaway to make room for the sporran and is also short enough to not interfere with my pleats. I'm not sure who might make ones intended for kilts...
Originally Posted by bicyclebradley
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So - I have nave hose, and forrest green hose, and then red and green flashes. i like the idea of blue hose with red or green flashes, and the green hose with red flash. sound good? I also like the idea of a heather or grey hose with the tartan flashes, to be a bit more contemporary...
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Those hose and flashes combos all sound good. Personally, I wouldn't do tartan accessories with my kilt (i.e., flashes, ties, pocket squares, etc) unless they are part of the "suit": kilt, vest, and jacket.
My choice is motivated by tradition, but if you're self-consciously being contemporary about wearing tartan flashes, then more power to you. Just make sure to fold the hose cuff over enough that the flashes don't look like flags flapping in the wind
Originally Posted by bicyclebradley
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Second, you can start to individualize your Highland attire. At the moment, you look very Slanj, which isn't bad, but I'd recommend investigating some personal flair.
do I need a minimum of 14 pieces of flair?
The word "hoses" does not refer to socks. The word "hoses" refers to more than one tubular item used for distributing liquids hither, thither and yon.
Here are two hoses.
2. If you like white hose then wear white hose. This prejudice against white hose is dumb, IMHO. If you like green hose, then wear green hose. If you like black hose, then wear black hose. If you like argyle hose, then wear argyle hose. And if you like white hose, then wear the damn things.
It's lovely to have several pairs of hose to choose from, if you happen to want to have choices.
3. You live in Southern California. Your lovely wife notwithstanding, NOBODY that you meet is either going to know or care if your sgian dubh is worn too high, or if your sporran is typical for "day wear" rather than formal. Anybody who is snotty to you because "you're not wearing it right" is a jerk. The one possible exception to that is if you join the local Caledonian Club or Saint Andrews Society. Then you really should make a significant attempt to do your formalwear "right".
I live in Northern California. Sometimes I wear a kilt dressed up semi-formal with a nice kilt jacket, a waistcoat, a nice pewter belt buckle, a pretty decent (but not great) black leather hunting sporran and hand-knit cream (cream means white! (Oh. My. God) or dark blue socks. Errrr. Hose.
Sometimes I wear the same kilt with white cotton socks (hose?) from Sock Dreams, a slightly tired leather sporran from Buzz Kidder, black work boots, oh and those WHITE SOCKS (oh. My. GOD!) are scrunched down and don't cover my whole leg to the delight of several women in my building who are shameless about telling me about it. ..... and a t-shirt. Or maybe a button-down shirt. Or whatever. No kilt pin. Or maybe I put on a kilt pin that day. Or not. Does it matter? Just wear the thing.
Quit stressing. You look great.
But you're an idiot if you wear all that getup when it's 104 degrees outside and you're not attending an event which demands formal wear.
Originally Posted by bicyclebradley
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