Jacket Color?

[Flatlander Bob]

Would it be correct to think that a black jacket would go with almost
any color Kilt? Trying to be wise with my money. Or my Wifes?

Thanks, Bob.

[OC Richard]

In art-speak black and all its shades, and white and all its tints (in other words the entire gradation of tones between black and white) aren't "colours" per se (having no hue) and "go with" any colour whatsoever equally well.

Black, white, and grey neither clash with colours, nor do they co-ordinate with them.

There was a huge fad in the Pipe Band world in the 1990s to eliminate from the band kit all colour save for the kilt itself. So most bands were wearing black jackets, hats, ties, sporrans, shoes, and flashes and white shirts and socks. This had the advantage of band members being able to switch bands without having to get anything new other than the new band's kilt! And it was impossible to "go wrong" and have any sort of colour clash.

But it was dull as could be.

But yes black and grey jackets "go with" any kilt... well except that I wouldn't want to wear a black jacket with a black kilt, or a grey jacket with a grey kilt, personally.

[Taskr]

I would think the kilt first, and then determine the day jacket to make a complementary outfit. Unless you are meaning a black/dark charcoal barathea for 'business' day wear to dress up for formal

[Flatlander Bob]

Thought was, I currently have a green Kilt on loan to
me from the pipe band I am playing with. May purchase
one of my own at some point. Of a yet to be determined
color. One jacket for both? May not be a viable plan.
Buying a Kilt and a jacket of my own is too much to do right
now.
Thanks for the advice. Bob

[416 Rigby]

You could also try a kilt cut conversion of a tweed jacket from a thrift store. You can get them for just a few dollars, and have a tailor or someone you know who sews do the conversion. In this way you could end up with two different colored jackets for less than the cost on a new one. I paid 6 bucks for a real nice one, and a seamstress charged me 75 bucks to convert it and lengthen the sleeves.

Just another option if funding is an issue, which it seems always is, eh?

Below is a link to my jacket thread, and there are lots more here if you do a search.

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...opinion-89501/

[The Wizard of BC]

One of the really great things about this forum is that it is very picture heavy. You can get a really good sense of fashion and style by looking though the pictures here.

With that said - One of the most common fashion mistakes I see almost every day is the thinking that just because we put a kilt on - that everything else in our outfits must now match or 'go' with our kilt.

We don't do this with pants.

But we do want the kilt to be the center of our outfits. We want the kilt to shine. One of our members approached this from an artist viewpoint and it is valid.

If you build all the colors of your outfit around the colors of your kilt, the kilt is pushed to the background. It blends into everything else.

Let the kilt shine.

I use the phrase "Color coordinate" when I talk about building an outfit. You want the entire outfit to coordinate. Not match, not be the same but to look good when put next to each other.

So I show guys that if they lay out their shoes, hose, shirt, tie, & jacket and everything looks good together the outfit will work. And it will go with almost any Tartan.

Another thing I do is show them pics of a wedding in Scotland. Almost everyone in the wedding party will be in the same hose, shirt, tie, jacket but each will have his own Tartan. And it all works.

And another trick I do is show them the outfit I am wearing that day. My hose are usually coordinated with my shirt. I can then go to my racks and pull off any Tartan, hold it up in front of myself - And viola! It still works.

So don't get too wrapped up in worrying about color. As said before in this thread those from white through the grays to black 'go' with everything. A black jacket will work just as well as a gray jacket.
Black is usually considered a step more formal than gray. Gray in the daytime and black in the evening thing.

We all seem to go through that phase of worrying about the 'correct' color. I am convinced that this comes from the photos that were posted in the early days of the internet. Everyone was dressed the same. That has far more to do with the fact that there were very few makers of kilt accessories then. There was little to choose from. For formal wear there was only the Prince Charlie. For everything else there was the Black Barathea Argyle. For daywear there were only Lovat Blue and Lovat Green tweed jackets. Everyone was in stark white hose or hand-knit cable hose. It's no wonder that so many came to believe that there was some sort of uniform rules, some "right and wrong" way to wear a kilt.

If nothing else, this forum has gotten people to break out of that 'uniform', 'right and wrong' way of thinking.

[McMurdo]

There are so many different tweed colours out there but a nice Charcoal tweed does work in a bunch of situations take a look at the 1 kilt 10 thread to give you an idea of just how versatile one is

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...-attire-46888/

[tripleblessed]

One of the really great things about this forum is that it is very picture heavy. You can get a really good sense of fashion and style by looking though the pictures here.

With that said - One of the most common fashion mistakes I see almost every day is the thinking that just because we put a kilt on - that everything else in our outfits must now match or 'go' with our kilt.

We don't do this with pants.

Going through the pictures, one realizes quickly that Scots and most in the US have a very different eye about what goes with what. Neither is "RIGHT", just different. Wizard's line about pants is dead on. When wearing a sport coat with shirt
and tie, we don't worry about the color of the jacket, shirt and tie clashing with the jeans we've chosen. Though some
(many?) will quibble about jeans with coat and tie. Many brown or rust tweeds go well with an amazingly wide variety of colors, and I've seen some blue/green "seafoam" tweeds that seem to work with virtually anything.

[OC Richard]

With that said - One of the most common fashion mistakes I see almost every day is that everything in our outfits must now match or 'go' with our kilt.

If you build all the colors of your outfit around the colors of your kilt, the kilt is pushed to the background. It blends into everything else.

Let the kilt shine.

I use the phrase "Color coordinate" when I talk about building an outfit. You want the entire outfit to coordinate. Not match, not be the same but to look good when put next to each other.

Yes exactly.

What happens when you wear hose and/or jacket that has the same colour as one of the main colours of the kilt is that colour is visually drained out of the kilt. It interferes with the colour-harmony that the tartan has. (Well, if the tartan is a well-designed one that HAS colour harmony!)

Black and dark grey stay out of the way.

But! a mid-grey can drain most any colour out of the kilt, and overall makes the kilt look dull.

The best thing is when an accessory's colour is NOT the same as a main colour in the kilt, but shifted in hue and stronger in intensity (more saturated).

For example I've found that wearing claret/maroon and Royal Blue with Isle Of Skye looks great, making the brown and purple in the tartan "zing" or glow, due to brown being, essentially, a dull version of maroon, and blue and purple being close hues, but the Royal Blue being more intense or saturated.

But yes a charcoal grey tweed jacket is hard to beat for most situations and "goes with" any kilt without dulling it.

Then you can pick hose that bring out the tartan's colours, makes the kilt glow.

The black & white Pipe Band thing.



Matchy-matchy me: back in the 1980s, an outfit where everything is lovat or claret. I made the bag-cover and flashes to match the tie.



Nowadays with bolder colours. Note the blue hose make the purple in the kilt more intense. Now I don't want the hat, jacket, and hose to all match! (Same ghillies in both photos BTW. Just wore them yesterday.)



Same kilt with charcoal jacket and claret hose