Fore!

Dear Style Guy:

Our band, like many others, is moving towards vests away from the half-way military look (black shirt, hose, horsehair sporran, spats, etc). We wear the Royal Stewart tartan and white hose.  We are looking at vests in colors other than black.

Grey probably won’t work, but we’ve taken an interest in either burgundy, hunter green, or navy blue. We are towards the burgundy with white shirts for now.  Perhaps we could move to light or dark blue shirts eventually to really match our tartan.  What would be your choice in vest color?

Anon.

Dear Anon:

Delighted to hear that your band is ditching the spats, horsehair look. That’s so mid-20th century. The Royal Stewart is a grand tartan, but it must be used with very well made and well cut kilts. Flimsy, over-long Royal Stewart kilts look like cheap wedding rentals.

Take a look at the Scots Guards or the Strathclyde Police. If there were ever two groups that wear the Royal Stewart well, it’s them. And I love the idea of wearing a deep navy blue, almost black but just not quite, with this tartan. If you must get waistcoats, match them with long-sleeved white shirts, and make sure that the vests fit so that there’s no short peeking out between the kilt and the vest. Or, forego the vests, get deep-navy jackets and short-sleeved white shirts.