HERE'S a TREAT

[OC Richard]

Yes Jock maybe it's getting a bit too tartanlike perhaps?

I don't know... I really like this photo



He's the well-known piper Archie MacPhedran, born 1885.

[Jock Scot]

Yes OCR that is a nice tweed that goes well with the tartan. I am pleased that you are beginning to see that some tweed patterns are just too much on occasion with kilt jackets. The bookies runner, or worse still, the clown look are quite easily achieved if one is not careful with patterned tweed kilt day jackets.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

I, personally, like to see a contrast in size of pattern. So for a kilt with an average-to-large sett size, a jacket with a nice, tight checked pattern would look splendid. But in the above photo posted by OCR, the kilt is in a very small sett tartan, and so the lager pattern on the jacket setts it off quite nicely.

I think Jock is correct, mixing patterns can be overdone. However, in my experience most Americans suffer from the opposite malady and are hesitant to mix any patterns at all. It has been an uphill battle for me to convince many of my co-patriots that it is ok to wear a tattersal shirt with their tartan kilt, or that the windowpane tweed might add a bit more character to their daywear ensemble than the plain colored tweed jacket they were contemplating. I'm happy to risk "overdoing it" a bit if it means getting people to branch out and experiment with more patterns in their Highland attire. Sure there will be a few missteps along the way, but that always happens when one is learning to walk! :-)

[CMcG]

I think the jacket MacLowlife posted is gorgeous, but that it wouldn't go with just any old tartan kilt. It would be great with a solid colour kilt, a tweed kilt with a subtle pattern, or maybe even a low contrast tartan like Black Watch, especially if it were a small sett as Matt has suggested. OCR's picture of Archie MacPhedran (above) appears to be a shepherd's check kilt and a bold patterned jacket also looks good there.




A "Loud" MacLeod kilt and the jacket MacLowlife posted? Not so much

[Jock Scot]

Everybody sees things differently Colin and that is as it should be, but personally I would not put that "eBay jacket" on a scarecrow!

[CMcG]

Everybody sees things differently Colin and that is as it should be, but personally I would not put that "eBay jacket" on a scarecrow!

Oh, I don't know Jock... it could look smashing on the right scarecrow





Don't get me wrong, though. Despite my appreciation for that eBay jacket and my musings about what tartan it may or may not go with, I don't think I would ever wear it...

[Jock Scot]

"Cruelty to scarecrows", I cry!

The real point that I am making Colin is that if someone is going to choose a tweed for their new and probably expensive kilt jacket that they are intending to wear for many years, then having to reget their choice for ever more---------- perhaps like the chap who bought the "eBay jacket"?-------- then that would be a shame. I say again, that patterned tweed kilt day jackets are great, but care is needed in the choice of pattern.

[MacLowlife]

I agree with everybody-
That jacket is a little adventurous.
Most Americans need to be a little more adventurous.
Scarecrows tend to wear whatever you make them...
Two further thoughts come to mind. One- the more a person studies his particular hobby, the more likely he is to become interested in the more esoteric / outrageous examples of it. and Two, merchants have long exhibited the extreme to sell the moderate. That eBay jacket is pretty strong ( insert your own "strong as..." comparison here) and I would not have liked to have paid full ticket bespoke prices for it. But to snatch it for a fraction of the original price ( the dollar is at a historic high against the pound at the moment, by the way ) would be a fun way to experience it.

No matter when you were born, you either owned in your youth or really, really wanted in your youth something that turned out later to be a little much. But chances are, no matter how passe it seems to you now, no matter how overdone and clownish, there is someone alive now or soon to be born who will find it wonderful and charming. I would not be surprised to learn that some gent ordered that eBay jacket in a moment of youthful exuberance and, as stodgy old age encroached, decided to let it out of the lead shielded cask where he had kept it buried. I may arouse the ire of some when I point out that a garish bespoke jacket is an easier decision to reconsider than a tattoo.

Or that spouse who seemed so exciting on first meeting.

[MacCathmhaoil]

As Jock pointed out there could be some regret over their selection of tweed, it may in fact explain why it is being put to auction by Bookster and not now at the cleaners being spruced up for the upcoming games season!

[Jock Scot]

It 's interesting that both Matt and MacLowlife have mentioned American dress conservatism in this thread and indeed it is something that I have been working on here, nicely I hope, with you chaps for quite a while now, so I know exactly what Matt and MacLl. are saying. However, that "ebay jacket" is exactly an example of the volume of loudness(and louder) of dress that we see many Americans wearing in Scotland when they are visiting here. I saw a classic example of this today, whilst I cannot say for sure that he was an American, he was certainly North American judging by the accent. Strange isn't it?