All right.....Brutal honesty requested!

[OC Richard]

Very smart kit!!!

I've been wearing kilts for 35 years now and I'm in the pipe band/solo piping and drumming/Highland Games scene (take that as a disclaimer perhaps) and I've noticed a recent trend away from white shirts.

A sharply-dessed soloist wearing that tartan and that jacket nowadays might- and this will sound odd- wear a red shirt with a sky blue tie. A lot of pipers/drummers/pipe bands are going to grey shirts also (to go with the grey kilt hose which are becoming more popular). Popular too is wearing black hose and black shirts, with the flashes and necktie alone doing the work of bringing colour into the kit. (Indeed many pipers are going with nearly black, or entirely black, kilts as well!)

Hmmm... I can't find any photos of a friend wearing the burgundy shirt she often wears with Highland dress for solo competition... but anyhow here's a couple photos of me showing the rather muted look common today amongst pipers:





Different kilts and ties each time. The tie in the top photo, by the way, matches the red in the kilt very well but for some reason the sun caught it in such a way to make it look pinkish.

Oh... about having a bit of shirt sleeve showing, not for me!! I HATE playing pipes in long sleeves, especially when wearing a jacket. I, and the majority of pipe bands, wear short sleeves all the time: alone, with vest/waistcoat, and with jacket. (The look of wearing short sleeves with a vest/waistcoat strikes many as "wrong" but in the pipe band world it's very common, and accepted.)