Dress Code
Hosts and Hostesses should ensure that members of their party are dressed appropriately
Gentlemen
Highland Dress or Lowland Dress (where trews replace the kilt), White Tie or Mess Dress. Please note that dinner jackets, even with trews are not acceptable. Please ensure that gentlemen in your party keep their jackets on throughout the evening.
In Detail (taken from www.debretts.com):
Highland Dress: Men
– The kilt, fairly long, fastened with a pin, with a dress sporran.
– A plain white shirt, with either a black bow tie or a lace jabot.
– A Highland jacket (also called a doublet) with ornamental silver buttons. There are several styles but they are normally made from black or dark coloured barathea, broadcloth or dark velvet. They may be worn with a waistcoat.
– Knee-length socks or stockings (‘hose’), patterned, or green or red (never plain cream), secured with a silk garter (sometimes called a flash). A dagger or sgian dubh may be placed on the right-hand side.
– Black patent leather dancing pumps or buckled brogues are traditional. A black evening shoe is also acceptable.
Lowland Dress / Tews
Some men prefer tartan trousers, ‘trews’, which may be worn with a velvet smoking jacket and black tie in place of dinner jacket trousers. Trews are always cut without a side seam.
Two excellent guides on appropriate Highland and Lowland dress can be found at Scottish Formal Attire and Houston Kiltmakers.
Photo credit: Monty Lewis Sporrans
Ladies
Long evening dresses. Ladies are encouraged to wear a sash. Please note that dresses should reach below the ankle; no high-low hems, bare midriffs or slits above the knee.
In Detail (taken from www.debretts.com):
Highland Dress: Ladies
– A long dress, with a skirt full enough for dancing reels, is worn at Highland balls
– White dresses are often worn with sashes, particularly at formal balls, but some wear colours or patterns.
Sashes
– A tartan sash is worn diagonally. Clanswomen wear it over the right shoulder, across the breast and secured by a pin or small brooch on the right shoulder.
– The wife of a clan chief or the wife of a colonel of a Scottish regiment would wear a slightly wider sash over the left shoulder, secured with a brooch on the left shoulder.
– Non-clanswomen attending the balls should wear similar long dresses but without a sash.