Kilt Shirts

A loose fitting shirt with no collar and no buttons, closing at the neck with a leather lace threaded through eyelets, usually with full sleeves gathered at the cuff. It predates the modern collared shirt and is worn open at the throat. It is the casual counterpart to a formal Highland dress shirt.

It follows the jacket. No jacket, or a casual outfit at a games day or a festival, takes a Jacobite ghillie shirt. Any outfit with an Argyll or a Prince Charlie takes a proper collared dress shirt with a tie or bow tie. Wearing a Jacobite shirt under a formal jacket is the combination that never works.

Yes, and for most formal occasions that is exactly right. A plain white shirt keeps the tartan as the only pattern in the outfit and photographs cleanly. You do not need a purpose made Highland shirt for a wedding. What you do need is a wing collar if you are wearing a bow tie with a Prince Charlie.

A turndown collar with a standard tie for an Argyll, which covers daytime and most weddings. A wing collar with a bow tie for a Prince Charlie in the evening. Keep the shirt white and let a tartan tie or cravat carry the colour, but only if the waistcoat is plain.

Closer through the body than an ordinary shirt, because it is worn tucked into a high kilt waistband and any excess bunches at the waist and shows through the jacket. Sleeve length matters too, since a formal jacket cuff should show around half an inch of shirt cuff. Jacobite shirts are cut deliberately loose and are the exception.

Cotton and cotton blends, chosen for a long evening in a warm room. Jacobite shirts use a heavier weave with a softer drape suited to the loose cut. Formal shirts use a finer, crisper cloth that holds a collar. Neither uses tartan, because a patterned shirt under a tartan kilt is one pattern too many.

No. It is cut long and loose deliberately and is worn out over the kilt waistband, usually with the neck lace left partly open. Tucking it defeats the cut and bunches badly at a high kilt waist. Formal collared shirts are the opposite and must always be tucked.

Standard cool wash, but hang it immediately rather than leaving it in the drum, since collar creases set fast and are hard to press out. Iron the collar and cuffs first, then the body. For a wing collar, press it flat before folding the points, or they will sit unevenly under a bow tie.