revamping the look

[Porloff94]

I'm in a band wearing Modern MacNeil of Barra. We currently go with off- white hose, semi-dress sporran of the leather and cow hide variety, white shirts and tartan ties. I'm trying to do a little revamp on the uniform and am looking for suggestions for an afternoon and then an evening event (not formal). I'm figuring Lovat green or bottle green hose with navy flashes, a dark grey shirt, black tie and black vest. Sporran is dress dark seal (or the like) with polished chrome cantle. Any advice / suggestions / comments are welcome.

[Cygnus]

Porloff, I'm glad to see you're making an effort to move from the "cookie cutter" pipe-band uniform!

What you proposed would look good, but I, personally, would go for something a bit bolder. Maybe red () hose with yellow () flashes.. A nice gingham/tattersall shirt (or just white or off-white would work - I'm not a fan of solid coloured shirts with kilts, especially dark coloured shirts). The black tie would do the trick for me, though I'm sure you'll hear recommendations for variations - all of which would be better than the tartan tie!
As for the sporran, I'm a fan of the "hunting" sporrans that many pipe bands use - mainly for their versatility. There's nothing wrong with wearing a fur sporran during the day if you so choose, but the sporran that is currently part of your uniform works fine for all but formal events.

I'm anxious to see what you decide to wear and how it all comes together - so please post pictures!

[davidlpope]

I'm in a band wearing Modern MacNeil of Barra. We currently go with off- white hose, semi-dress sporran of the leather and cow hide variety, white shirts and tartan ties. I'm trying to do a little revamp on the uniform and am looking for suggestions for an afternoon and then an evening event (not formal). I'm figuring Lovat green or bottle green hose with navy flashes, a dark grey shirt, black tie and black vest. Sporran is dress dark seal (or the like) with polished chrome cantle. Any advice / suggestions / comments are welcome.

I think your ideas, above, would result in a look that is overly dark. I think that you'd look best with:

Lovat Blue or Lovat Green Hose with red flashes
Charcoal jackets/waistcoats
Light Blue shirts
Simple black military style sporrans (no tassles)

Check out the photos about halfwaydown the page here:
http://www.sfupb.com/news/


Good on you for ditching the tartan ties! Why not think about designing a "band tie" either with "regimental-style" stripes or an embroidered insignia using navy blue as a base?

David

[Porloff94]

I was thinking the combo may be too dark. I have Lovat blue hose, but they look just a little off; although with a light blue shirt, it would probably pull together more.

[Kornkob]

It might be interesting to have a mixture of ties--- blue, green, black and yellow---- in the group, each with the same logo embroidered on it in white.

[Cygnus]

I think I may have misunderstood -

Are you accessorizing elements of your uniform for your individual use or are you looking to modify the uniform of the entire band?

I think the responses you've had thus far assume one or the other, and my recommendation certainly would be a bit odd for the whole band!

[Tobus]

On sporrans, a pipe band can never go wrong with horse hair sporrans. They just "go" with bagpipes, giving a nice visual balance below the belt to the angle of the drones above the belt. I've always thought that pipers wearing small sporrans look top-heavy, but that's just me. A long hair sporran really does the trick.

I notice you didn't mention anything about headwear. Does your band wear any sort of hat? If not, that's an excellent way to make the look completely new without doing a total revamp of everything else. Glengarries seem to be all the style amongst pipe bands these days, but I personally like the old-school look of Balmorals.

[AFS1970]

I think the dark grey shirt with the black vest may be a bit dark, but I have seen uniform shirts in light grey which might be just far enough away from white that it would set you apart. Another thought would be to go with tan/khaki shirts. I think any neutral color would go with that tartan and the tan might draw out the yellow stripe a bit.

I second the idea about yellow flashes, although I would keep them on the green hose, or even move to blue hose. You could also match the ties to either the hose or the flashes without too much difficulty. I think that black is a bit too cookie cutter, and perhaps a green tie behind the black vest might just stand out a bit more.

As for Sporrans, I say stay with what you have. They are versatile. To me, and I may be wrong in this, the horsehair does not look right without the doublet.

[Porloff94]

Thanks to all for your input and ideas. I ended up doing the solo event with black 5 button vest, light blue shirt, Lovat blue hose, navy blue flashes, regimental-style yellow tie with a narrow navy stripe, seal skin sporran and glengarry. The blues worked well together as the over-all theme color. The mix of light and navy broke it up so as not to be over-powering. The yellow tie picked up the yellow stripe nicely. I went with the seal skin as opposed to my leather hunting sporran as the leather just looked a bit too dressed down for the tone of the event (Memorial Mass).

I am looking to rework the band's look as well. I'm leaning toward the hunting leathers with the chrome cantle and may visit the earlier mentioned light grey shirt option. It's easy to lay it out on the table and work it out. The big hurdle was convincing some of the powers-that-be to consider something besides white shirt, off white hose and tartan tie. Having gotten a few very favorable comments via the Drum Major (he was one of the event organizers, though not present as the DM), I think we may have made some progress. Here's hoping, anyway.