White Tie Kilt Dress

[Phil]

Various styles of formal dress seem to exercise the imagination of many contributors here, the reason for which intrigues me but may perhaps lie in a latent desire to re-create a long-forgotten age, redolent with Kings, Queens and all the Cinderella trappings supposedly associated with them. Functions such as "Caledonian Ball's" are largely anachronisms in this day and age and that illustrated guide to forms of Court dress belong to a bygone era which ceased along with debutantes 50-odd years ago. It is certainly no longer appropriate should any member here receive an invitation from Her Majesty. As an instance of this I know from personal experience that guests from Scotland at one fairly recent Royal event, the marriage of Prince Charles to Camilla Parker-Bowles, were wearing PC's, white hose etc. to the daytime event so to attempt to infer that such inviolable rules still exist is misleading to say the least. It also begs the question raised in another discussion about the propriety of wearing such dress in the daytime.
I do agree, however, that there still exist such dinosaurs as "Caledonian Balls" which are the last vestiges of an otherwise extinct society and which exist principally to offer attendees the opportunity to dress up in a way they could not otherwise, and really, to paraphrase Groucho Marks "I wouldn't want to be in any Club that would have them as members".

[JSFMACLJR]

Functions such as "Caledonian Ball's" are largely anachronisms in this day and age I do agree, however, that there still exist such dinosaurs as "Caledonian Balls" which are the last vestiges of an otherwise extinct society and which exist principally to offer attendees the opportunity to dress up in a way they could not otherwise, and really, to paraphrase Groucho Marks "I wouldn't want to be in any Club that would have them as members".

Phil, I couldn't disagree more with you! The Royal Caledonian Ball is the oldest CHARITABLE ball in the world, having been founded by the Duke of Atholl in the 1840s, and since 1849 has been a subscription dance to raise money for Scottish charities. Over the past 10 years over 300,000 pounds has been donated to Scottish charities, hardly a trifling amount

The 2005 Treasurers Report states:
Set out below is a brief summary of the results of The Royal Caledonian Ball in 2005. We are delighted to report that the Royal Caledonian Ball Trust has donated £72,000 to charity over the last three years.

These calculations are based solely on the ticket price as the Committee pass on the cost of the dinner directly to our guests.

The ticket price was £80, of which 52% was distributed as follows:

Queen Victoria School, Dunblane £5,000
Riding for the Disabled (Glasgow Group) £1,000
Borderline £4,000
Drumpark School £5,000
Childline Scotland £2,000
St Catherine's Homeless Project £3,500
Upper Springland Capability Project £3,500
Total £24,000

Charity Number: 213074

As a supporter of the Royal Caledonian Ball Trust, I find your disparaging remarks ignorant and not welcome on a forum that supports "Family Values." You are certainly entitled to your opinion ( as so many people of late have asserted ) but I do hope you will reconsider what you have said and agree that there is nothing wrong with the generosity of so many. I usually look forward to reading your posts, now I am not so sure.

Kind regards,
Sandford

[Phil]

As a supporter of the Royal Caledonian Ball Trust, I find your disparaging remarks ignorant and not welcome on a forum that supports "Family Values." You are certainly entitled to your opinion ( as so many people of late have asserted ) but I do hope you will reconsider what you have said and agree that there is nothing wrong with the generosity of so many. I usually look forward to reading your posts, now I am not so sure.

I referred to them as "anachronisms" and "dinosaurs" and as such am at a loss to understand how this possibly infringes "Family Values". Whether it contributes to charities is neither here nor there, the fact remains it is an event rooted in the 19th century, maintaining and nurturing the conventions of dress and behaviour of those times with little relevance to people and how they live nowadays. If you consider my opinions to be disparaging, ignorant and unwelcome then so be it, we must agree to differ although I would not presume to claim the high moral ground of "Family Values" for mine.

[JSFMACLJR]

I referred to them as "anachronisms" and "dinosaurs" and as such am at a loss to understand how this possibly infringes "Family Values". Whether it contributes to charities is neither here nor there, the fact remains it is an event rooted in the 19th century, maintaining and nurturing the conventions of dress and behaviour of those times with little relevance to people and how they live nowadays. If you consider my opinions to be disparaging, ignorant and unwelcome then so be it, we must agree to differ although I would not presume to claim the high moral ground of "Family Values" for mine.

I referred to the "family values" issue because I saw in your post an attack on a well-known, well-established charity that does noble work. I would not like some readers of the posts on this forum to assume that members are heartless and attack at random groups that seek to do good. I meant nothing more by it.

But, how is it "anachronistic" for a group of like minded people to get together, dress in their best, dine well, and spend the night reeling? These events ARE relevent to these people and how they live today. They work hard ( for even the wealthiest have to support that wealth and your taxation rates are pretty extreme) and deserve to come together and have fun in the ways they enjoy. They enjoy reeling. They like to look nice when they go out. Do you have some sort of "social class issue" about this? Do you ever gather with your friends at the local? How quaint, and so "British!" 19th century social behaviour, n'est-ce pas? Come on Phil, cheers up! Let people enjoy themselves as they please! I can think of a lot more concerns to worry about than the intentions and attitudes of ball-goers.

Cheers,
Sandford