Prince Charles Duke of Rothesay in kilt photos

[M. A. C. Newsome]

It's a good rule of thumb to match the color of your leathers and match the color of your metals, just speaking in terms of general advice. If you are advising someone who is new to highland attire or just doesn't have a good eye for matching color and pattern, that's a good place to begin. (Rather like advising someone that solid color shirts look best with kilts. This is not to say that a patterned shirt, like a tattersal shirt, doesn't look fine with a kilt. But if a person does not have an eye for selecting patterns that tone well together, his best bet is to choose a solid color).

But I think too many people take this general advice and turn it into an absolute rule which must not be broken. And this creates a false rigidity that was never really part of traditional highland attire.

So while, in general, I'll wear brown shoes with my brown sporran and black shoes with my black sporran, I will wear a combination on occasion. For instance, on Monday I was wearing a brown leather sporran. I thought it matched the kilt and shirt I had on nicely. I was also wearing navy blue hose, which matched the kilt and shirt nicely -- but I didn't like the way my brown shoes looked with the navy hose, so I wore black.

The shoes worked with the hose. The sporran worked with the kilt and shirt. And the whole outfit worked together. I didn't get a single comment from anyone about my sporran and shoes not matching. :-)

[Ancienne Alliance]

It's a good rule of thumb to match the color of your leathers and match the color of your metals, just speaking in terms of general advice. If you are advising someone who is new to highland attire or just doesn't have a good eye for matching color and pattern, that's a good place to begin. (Rather like advising someone that solid color shirts look best with kilts. This is not to say that a patterned shirt, like a tattersal shirt, doesn't look fine with a kilt. But if a person does not have an eye for selecting patterns that tone well together, his best bet is to choose a solid color).

But I think too many people take this general advice and turn it into an absolute rule which must not be broken. And this creates a false rigidity that was never really part of traditional highland attire.

So while, in general, I'll wear brown shoes with my brown sporran and black shoes with my black sporran, I will wear a combination on occasion. For instance, on Monday I was wearing a brown leather sporran. I thought it matched the kilt and shirt I had on nicely. I was also wearing navy blue hose, which matched the kilt and shirt nicely -- but I didn't like the way my brown shoes looked with the navy hose, so I wore black.

The shoes worked with the hose. The sporran worked with the kilt and shirt. And the whole outfit worked together. I didn't get a single comment from anyone about my sporran and shoes not matching. :-)

Thank you for "translating" my thoughts Mr Newsome.


Best,

Robert