Formal Sporran with Tweed Argyll

[KennethSime]

I was watching the latest Kilts + Culture episode, and one of the hosts brought up a good question.

How do folks feel about wearing a formal fur sporran along with a tweed argyll, say at a Highland games?

I've always just worn a plain leather day sporran to such events.

I'm starting to plan my wedding outfit for next year, and will likely wear tweed (even after hours). I wonder if I might wear a formal sporran along with my tweed argyll?

Picture for reference, although I detest the monotone outfit here - and the rouche tie.

grey-tweed-jacket-formal-kilt-outfit.jpg

[Troglodyte]

You will receive a range of opinions in response to your query, but, in general terms, there are a few factors to bare in mind.

Smart is not the same as formal, and whilst tweed can appear very smart indeed, it is essentially informal. In the UK, tweed is casual-wear, being the work clothes of ghillies and gamekeepers, and the preference of sporting gents.

Allthough it is now seldom heard, a tweed jacket is known by soldiers as a change-coat, and a half-change by schoolboys. Meaning it is the garment of choice when lounging around off duty, for its informality and casual comfort.

There are no written rules, but convention governs what is thought proper, and the less ornate the sporran, the better suited it is for daytime activities.

But a wedding is quite a different situation all together.

The bride's preferences set the rules to follow, and dressing up an informal (albeit very smart) tweed-and-kilt outfit with a more ornate 'trimmed' sporran is going to upset no-one. What some would call evening sporrans (the fur front and metal trimmed sort) are often seen here in Scotland at Highland Games.

The fluffy white and silver-trimmed sporrans are best left of evening use, but a mid- or dark-toned fur sporran with a metal cantle can work very well. The chrome finish can be too shiny, an the 'antique' finish looks better in daylight anyway.

The trick is knowing how to carry it off. No matter how smart and formal garments are, if they are worn loose, sloppy and slovenly, that is how they will appear - and be recorded for ever on the photos..! Conversely, good tweeds worn neatly will find approval in even the most critical eye.

The picture has been taken at a Games in Scotland, and perhaps gives you the answer you need.

Ballater Games 1.jpg

[figheadair]

For a daytime wedding I would always wear tweed but probably not a hair sporran. They were popular during the Victorian era but are generally reserved for evening wear (Black, or White, Tie) which is my preference for them.

For an after hours wedding I'd opt for something plain and less 'country' but still not formal. I usually pair this with my Celtic Revival silver cantle sporran which dates to 1896.

What I've worn at both type of events.

Tweed and plain.jpg

[McMurdo]

I wore a tweed argyll and waistcoat with a sealskin dress sporran at my wedding. It worked very well. As a guest at a more recent wedding I wore a tweed Argyll and waistcoat with a plain leather day sporran. The dress sporran elevated the outfit as the groom.

Here is the outfit from my wedding


At the more recent wedding as a guest, this group shot shows a variety of different options

[MurrayInGA]

I'm a fan of the look and I doubt you'll have any problem making it work. I wore my formal sporran to Stone Mtn last year on Sunday(felt like dressing up I suppose). Wore it with my charcoal arrochar argyll. I think for anything lighter in color jacket-wise, I'd go with leather/simpler sporran.
IMG_4261 (2).jpg

[KennethSime]

Thank you all very much for your feedback.

I'm going to put together a few options this weekend and take some photos, then ask for a bit more feedback. I still have a long time to plan. :-)

[OC Richard]

It's a topic with a number of different compartments.

First is to recognise that civilian Highland Dress has various periods, each consisting of several decades of stability followed by a short period of rapid change. We're in the middle of one of the latter as we speak, so somebody getting their introduction to Highland Dress at this point in time is presented with a quite messy picture.

I'll call the Highland Dress of c1840 to c1900 Victorian Civilian Highland Dress for lack of a better term.

In this period long hair sporrans were worn in both informal outdoor/day dress with tweed and in formal evening dress.

Though VCHD tended to have a looser demarcation between day and evening, one does note that the day/outdoor/tweed sporrans tend to be of brown-grey hair with plain leather cantles, often with no metal, while the evening/formal sporrans were usually white hair with silver cantles.

Also popular in VCHD day/tweed outfits were Pine Marten sporrans.

So yes in Victorian times hair sporrans were worn with tweed but no these were generally not "formal" sporrans as these two sorts of sporrans existed then.

Then between around WWI VCHD was rather rapidly replaced by the Traditional Civilian Highland Dress which is still with us today.

Around WWI two new sporran genres appeared, both small and rounded:

Day Dress (outdoor/tweed): brown leather, often with fur fronts

Evening Dress: seal with silver cantles. However the long hair Victorian evening sporrans, though not as common, have continued to be worn to this day.

So yes throughout the TCHD period (roughly 1920 to the present) some men, especially pipers, have worn the modern 20th century small rounded seal & silver evening dress sporrans with day tweed, though this has never been considered proper, strictly speaking, due to day dress having its own dedicated sporran genre.

Nowadays who can say! TCHD has been battered (but not yet defeated) by the appearance and rise of Kilt Hire Highland Dress which started to have an impact starting in the 1980s and whose impact seems to steadily grow.

KHHD introduced the ubiquitous costume consisting of the black Prince Charlie coatee, black leather "semi dress" sporran with silver fitments, pure white hose, and high-laced black Ghillie brogues, everything designed to be less expensive and in black and white to easier to hire together.

KHHD has also been keen on pairing evening dress seal & silver sporrans with tweed.

Time for pictures!

Victorian day dress, tweed with brown-grey long hair sporran with plain leather cantle, a far cry from Victorian formal sporrans.



The coming of the new small brown leather "day" sporran, 1910



The fully developed post-WWI traditional Day Dress with brown leather sporran



Selection of Day Dress sporrans in a 1938 catalogue



TCHD continues: 1960



The impact of Kilt Hire 1980s to present: some monochromatic hire outfits, semi-dress sporrans, black day sporrans, greyscale tartans, etc

[OC Richard]

All that background blathering aside, men have worn Evening Dress seal sporrans with tweed going back to when our modern small seal Evening sporrans first appeared, and still do today.

I put together this group showing around a century of men doing this.

On the left is perhaps the earliest photo I've found of the type of sporran that became the standard TCHD Evening Dress sporran (except for the fur which doesn't look like seal). At that time such a sporran might seem out of place with Evening Dress, in which white long hair silver-topped sporrans were standard.

On the right are two modern Stewards at the Oban Games.

[neloon]

On the right are two modern Clan Chiefs at the Oban Games.

Really?

Alan

[figheadair]

Really?

Presumably Nicholson and Anderson?