is there a difference between an argyle and a regular blazer?

[Piobair]

With this very topic in mind, I've been looking at various stores that are more "hipster" oriented, as tweed is pretty popular right now and the slim cut blazers tend to be pretty short - around tailbone/wrist length. Some might be familiar with asos, an online store with Euro ties that competes with H&M online. One blazer in particular (here) even has epaulettes. Still looks a bit long, but a slight cutdown could potentially save the pocket and make it kilt friendly. They've got a few others with coordinating waistcoats the might work, too. Operative word is "might."

Not sure I want to got hough the hassle of mailing/returning jackets and waistcoats on the off chance they're kilt friendly, but I'm tempted to see if this is an alternative to spending $200 on tweed jackets that have issues of their own.

[OC Richard]

About formality levels of Highland jackets, I'll point out that in the Victorian period a variety of jacket styles were worn with what we would call "Evening Dress", some of the styles quite plain, not the sort we would consider "kilt jackets" at all, such as a plain black blazer with black buttons. Argyll-cut jackets and Doublet-cut jackets were both equally worn with Day Dress and Evening Dress.

In the revamped Highland Dress which appeared in the early 20th century square silver buttons seemed to be considered mandatory for Evening Dress, both the Doublet and Argyll styles remaining, and supplemented with several new styles such as the Prince Charlie, Montrose, and Kenmore.

Here's an Argyll cut jacket worn with formal Evening Dress. I would guess this was taken around 1910?



Here c1860 our eye is presented with elaborate high Victorian Highland Dress. But first impressions can be deceiving, and closer inspection shows that the piper is wearing an utterly plain jacket. This juxtaposition of plain jacket with ornate accessories would be considered odd-looking by 1920.