Highland Dress

Jackets

Kilt jackets come in three basic styles;

The Bonny Prince Charlie (or "Charlie Jacket") is a formal dinner jacket. Usually cut from superfine cloth and adorned with silver buttons, it is strictly formal wear. Recent years have seen the silver buttons substituted by chrome. Chrome belongs on cars, not clothes. The gentleman on the left is wearing a white tie and weskit. This mode of dress is about as dressy and formal as one can be without resorting to surgery. This order of dress used to be known as 'Soup-and-Fish' because it shows ANYTHING that gets spilled on it. The man on the right wears a black tie and black weskit. this is considered less-formal than white tie. You will not be struck by a thunderbolt from Mount Olympus if you choose to wear a white tie with a black weskit or vice versa. People WILL, however, assume that you are unused to getting dressed-up and that you are the unknowing victim of a vindictive clerk at 'Dinner Jackets "R" Us'. For the balance of the evening they will be discretely checking to see if you chew with your mouth open and the spoons will be counted after you leave.

The Tweed kilt jacket (left) is exactly what it seems. It is usually cut from one of several 'kilting tweeds' woven specifically for the purpose and has horn or leather buttons. The Argyll Jacket (right) may be worn either by Day with shirt and tie, and belt or 5-button waistcoat or as Evening Dress, with formal shirt, bow tie and 3 button waistcoat. As with the Charlie Jacket, too frequently it suffers from a surfeit of chrome buttons.

Choosing a jacket:
Unless you are only going to wear it once, buying a jacket is preferable to renting as it will quickly pay for itself.

A Charlie Jacket looks great, but is only suitable as formal evening wear. I have one, but I go to at least 4 Black Tie events every year.

As I've already mentioned, an Argyll jacket is more versatile, being suitable for day and evening wear.

Getting a proper fit:
The tails of a Charlie jacket or the hem of an Argyll or Tweed kilt jacket should not hang lower than the widest part of your seat (That is or should be the bottom of the sewn part of the pleats). The hem of an Eton jacket (an Army mess jacket) should be no lower than your navel.

ALWAYS bring your kilt with you when you are shopping for jackets! That extra 7 or 8 yards of wool wrapped around you makes a difference!

Getting the best value in a jacket:
The problem I have with off-the-rack jackets is that it's hard to find a good fit – go through 10 ‘size 44's’ and every one will fit differently. The workmanship is good enough, but the cloth is usually only 'acceptable'.

There's not much variation in style, as all the jackets you’ll see advertised come from the same 2 or 3 factories. Walk me through a St Andrew's Dinner, and I can identify where everyone bought their jackets.

Another Suggestion:
Any single-breasted suit jacket or sport jacket can be cut-away to make it a kilt jacket, provided the front lower pockets are ‘Slash’ pockets, as opposed to ‘patch’ pockets.

‘Patch’ pockets are made by sewing a piece of suiting onto the jacket, and cannot be cut-away. ‘Slash’ pockets are what they sound like – when you put your hand in one, it goes through a slit in the jacket and into a little cloth bag-pocket.

Be the first man in your street to wear an Armani kilt jacket!

A Modest Proposal:
Rather than buy 'off the rack', have a tailor make your kilt jacket. You might pay a LITTLE more money (the difference will be in the 'tens', not the 'hundreds') and you will have control over selection of cloth, fit, and workmanship.

There is also an elusive ‘something’ about being measured and then possessing ‘made-to-measure’ clothing that is highly satisfying.

Cleaning your jacket:
In all but the very worst cases, ‘spot-clean’ using a face-cloth dipped in tepid water and a little hand-soap.

Many dry-cleaners are doubtless worthy people and a grateful nation points to them with pride, but if you send in a jacket with a lot of buttons on it there’s a very good chance that you will not see those buttons again.