I attend about two, maybe three events which qualify as "black tie" a year. In fact, I exaggerate here because of those events a couple of them are attending the San Francisco Symphony, and I can easily do that in four-in-hand tie and tweed jacket. Heck people show up in blue jeans, if it's a weeknight concert. I just choose to wear black tie, sometimes for Saturday Night concerts. So the only event to which I feel somewhat obligated to wear black tie is in fact the X-Marks The Scot, Nor Cal Rabble Burns Night and the truth is that I could easily wear the tweed jacket to that and nobody would care. We're more about having our kilt-wearing friends around and having fun than standing on ceremony and giving folks the eye if they're not kitted out "correctly". Wear what you have and come on down to our Burns Nigh....the people are friendly, the haggis is warm and the whisky is good.

I used to play in a "Society Orchestra" in which, if we played during dinner we *MIGHT* don white dinner jackets instead of tuxedo jackets. But an actual "white tie" event? I've never in my lifetime attended one and don't ever expect to. So for me, the most formal thing I'd expect to attend is black tie, and for that I see men wearing Prince Charlie Coatees and black Argyll jackets. I happened to like the look of the Spencer (Eton) Jacket, since it closely resembles the military Mess Jacket.

What first alerted me to this option was actually.....horrors!....a picture on the Sport Kilt Website of a US Naval Officer wearing his Mess Jacket with a kilt. It looked great. Thus began my search for a Mess Jacket sans insignia, and from there, the Spencer (Eton) jacket. I found one on ebay, an ex-rental that was in very good shape. The nice thing about the Spencer (Eton) jacket is that it seems to me that it's fine to wear the thing without a waistcoat, and with a nice kilt belt. I happened to pick up a backless three-button vest from Uniformalwearhouse. It's identical to the backless vest sold by Marlow, BTW.....just costs about a third the price. I replaced the buttons with round, pewter ones with a celtic theme and this works fine.

Of course I've seen Pipers Doublets, but I've never seen any other sort of Doublet here in California.

and so, in summary, FOR MY LIFE in which "white tie" is nonexistant, the Spencer jacket with three-button vest and a black bow tie does me just fine, and fits in with the mixture of PC's and Argylls.