matching your hose?

[Ruffles]

Hunny bought cream hose to wear with his Ancient McDonald kilt, and I've made him green flashings. Is it ok if his shirt is white and not cream, like the hose? I'm not sure about the rules...

Also, he hasn't a jacket, what else should he wear? It's for formal night on our cruise at the end of November.

Normally, he wears his kilt ultra casually- like with his Star Wars T-shirt! But we're trying to dress it up this time! LOL

Any advice? Hope this was the right place to post this!

also...

I've looked around at several pictures and am drawn to the red checked hose- what is the history of those?

[The Guy in the Kilt at UC]

Yes, the shirt & hose need not match. If the dinner is formal, and he has no jacket for the kilt, then he should ditch the kilt and go with one of his formal suits. Or he should rent a tuxedo on board. If he wants to wear the kilt to formal night, he will definitely need a jacket. You can buy one, but it seems like short notice. Depending on your location, you may not find an evening jacket so readily.

Take a look here for a guide to formality in kilted attire. Outfits 9 and 10 are for formal dinner.

[piperdbh]

About the shirt and hose matching: it all depends on where he's wearing it.
For a formal dinner aboard ship, I'd say they need to match. White/white, cream/cream, etc.) For going to the grocery store to get your favorite dinner fixin's, it doesn't really matter.
Depending on where you are, what size Hunny is and how much you want to spend, a jacket could be had by the end of this month.
The red and black "checkered" (diced) hose are often worn as formal hose, sometimes worn by 'pipe bands, and are generally available through various websites, some of whom are sponsors here.

[ForresterModern]

Having just gotten back from a cruise myself I can tell you that there is a fairly broad definition of what constitutes "formal" on a cruise ship. If he has a dark sportcoat in a color that does not overtly clash with his kilt I would recommend that, even though it may not be technically a kilt jacket. A true kilt cut jacket will set you back probably at least a couple hundred dollars, and depending on where you buy it may not be obtainable in time for your cruise.

The shirt hose thing is more of a guideline than a strict rule, but I agree with DBH that cream hose probably look best with a similar or lighter cream shirt, and white hose (if you are of that mind) look best with white shirt. Try to pick a tie that picks up the colors of the kilt and flashes, either a solid or a regimental style striped tie are usually good.

For some ideas of what looks good with what see the thread at the top of the general section about "10 different looks".

I have the kit, so if I was to do a kilt formal for a cruise dinner I would do something like this:



The guy on the left of the picture is me in a black argyll jacket and 5 button waistcoat with a scrunch tie/cravat (formal but technically below black tie in most folks book) while the guy on the right is a friend wearing a formal PC jacket and 3 button waistcoat with a black bow tie, a true black tie outfit.

Cruise formal can be a lot less than that, however, and you can probably dress anywhere from a sportcoat and tie up to a tuxedo if you like. It is more likely that he will make a splash just being dressed up and in a kilt than for the rest of his outfit, as long as he does not look like a clown with too many bright colors scattered about his body (tie, hose, flashes, etc...). Let the kilt be the center of attention in the outfit.

[thescot]

I would agree with The Guy in the Kilt . . . Either get a Prince Charlie (rent--or buy if you can afford it) or don't wear the kilt. You can get by quite well with a black argyl in barathea since that, too, is acceptable for black tie. Throw on a plain white shirt and black tie and you're in.

On a cruise, I have even worn a tweed jacket in charcoal even though it's not really an after-five outfit. I was dressed almost as well as everyone else. You have plety of time to order the rental, and all he would need would be a dressy sporran, a black belt with silver buckle, and a white shirt and black tie, either bow or four-in-hand. You can rent all of it pretty reasonably--no more than a tux rental I suspect.

Keep us posted and take lots of pictures on the cruise.

[Ruffles]

Yes, the shirt & hose need not match. If the dinner is formal, and he has no jacket for the kilt, then he should ditch the kilt and go with one of his formal suits. Or he should rent a tuxedo on board. If he wants to wear the kilt to formal night, he will definitely need a jacket. You can buy one, but it seems like short notice. Depending on your location, you may not find an evening jacket so readily.

Take a look here for a guide to formality in kilted attire. Outfits 9 and 10 are for formal dinner.

So a suit jacket and tie and white shirt would be good. I'm thinking the Semi-Formal look Jamie modeled (so well) would be appropriate, as I am not going to be in sequins, but a simple black dress. He has a normal suit jacket, but I didn't realize that would be ok. I noticed Jamie's jackets were cut into a curve in the front, and hubby's are more square...

He is very, very fond of the traditional dress (despite wearing his kilt with various T-shirts, as I mentioned above) and we'd like to work on his ensemble! He likes to wear it a lot! Eventually I'd love for him to have a fur sporran and one of those lovely jackets Glenn and Jamie wear so well! He is also jonesing after the Ghillies! Black dress shoes will have to suffice for now though! He does have a lovely kilt pin and great belt buckle, and a pretty basic black leather sporran. Hoping we can get it all together before the trip!

[thescot]

. . .


The guy on the left of the picture is me in a black argyll jacket and 5 button waistcoat with a scrunch tie/cravat . . .

Hey, where's your red hat (see avatar)?

Does Hunny need a red hat, too?

[thescot]

Don't wear a regular suit coat with a kilt, if that's what you mean. Jamie's are kilt jackets and are cut shorter (and rounded in the front to allow the sporran to show) than are regular suit coats.

But . . . a plain black suit is perfectly acceptable for black-tie dinner on the cruise, or just about anywhere. And a plain black dress is, too. A woman little black dress is always in style.

[MacLowlife]

I don't know that I'd wait until I got on board, but I am willing to bet the ship's formal wear rental facility has a short ( Eton, Spencer, cropped) waist length tux jacket. If you take his ordinary suit coat with you, you can always make do with it as a backup. As you have seen above, it isn't strictly correct, but it will work nicely in a situation where nobody else is wearing a kilt. AND, if you can rent the short jacket on board, you can get him that one step closer to ideal. If he is like most men, the best looking part of his kilt outfit will be on his arm.

[Ruffles]

Thanks for all of the advice! Good thing we asked first or you guys would have laughed heartily at our cruise pictures! I think we will make him look really good, and I love the idea of renting the jacket on the cruise, I've never been on a cruise, so I didn't know they did that!

Also, I guess I may have to quit calling him "Hunny" or the name is going to stick, huh? LOL!!