Quote Originally Posted by EdinSteve View Post
The only jackets that I know to be recognised as truly formal are the now pretty well obsolete Regulation doublet and the later Prince Charlie. All others are local creations by tailors to suit the requirements of their customers and when and how they are worn is a personal decision by the owner unless a strict dress code is pre-ordained, a rarity nowadays. By these I mean the Montrose or Military doublet, the Kenmore, the Sheriffmuir etc. which, while many on a site such as this who have received their influences at second hand accordingly have come to regard them as formal jackets, are really just variations on traditional Scottish garments. I suppose the closest modern Saxon-type approximation I could give is wearing your business suit jacket with jeans and an open neck shirt, quite common nowadays. What should not be done is to try and pigeonhole garments into rigid compartments that they do not and never have belonged in. I suppose it is an attempt to fit Scottish dress into an Anglo Saxon culture without recognising that the two cultures are quite distinct and have developed independently of each other over many hundreds of years.
And no, it is not something I would typically see in mine or any other area of Scotland. Not through lack of trying but simply that, apart from busking pipers on street corners, occasional hotel doorkeepers and tartan shop assistants the principal highland dress encountered are worn by those on their way to a wedding in their Prince Charlies. You will likely encounter more hen’s teeth in Scotland than you will Sheriffmuir doublets and how they must be worn will be in a similarly intangible territory.
Highland dress is a free type of dress and attempts to shoehorn it into rigid stereotypes is not one that Scots would necessarily recognise. Certainly there are recognised conventions such as the pleats at the back of the kilt and a Prince Charlie for evening wear if a bit formal but whatever else you choose to wear is an entirely personal decision. Others may disapprove of this, may even be critical due to the misconceptions they have acquired over the years or the egocentric opinions handed down as tablets of stone they may have heard or read. And, of course, these personal opinions that they have developed from these influences are no more nor less than that - personal opinions. They have no relevance to the opinions and choices of anyone else, nor should they have.
I must say, I was quite happy (and a even a bit relieved) to read that. I've been torn between a genuine fondness for the look of a doublet, and the fact that I literally never find myself at truly formal events.

See, I originally bought an Argyll jacket because I'd seen over and over that if you're only gonna have one jacket, make it an Argyll. However, it ceased to be my only jacket with the arrival of my tweed Braemar, and now I find that it's relegated to those times when tweed just isn't quite dressy enough. Not to be a hipster, but it's such a common jacket choice that I'm kinda' bored with it. I knew I wanted something a bit more interesting, but again, I've repeatedly read and heard that doublets are only for formalwear. And while it's no secret that I'm rather antiauthoritarian when it comes to matters of fashion, I don't wish to come across as a total fop either.

So with my apprehension rapidly fading after reading EdinSteve's post, I can now be torn between a Sherrifmuir or a Balmoral, barathea or arrochar...and of course, whether to keep the Argyll for when a doublet would be bit too eccentric (e.g. funerals), or to get a Wallace jacket that purpose and retire the Argyll altogether.