Alas, some of us still find ourselves squeezing into our No. 1s for SDO / OO duty post 1900!
At a previous unit of mine a few years back there was a spate of "no shows" at the ensign lowering, despite pilots being airborne / diverted etc. no excuses were taken. The powers that be then started an exponential increase in "punishment time" culminating with one pilot receiving 21 days straight of Orderly Officer - no kidding. Funnily enough no one seemed top forget after that.
Oh and Blues have always been the dress as far as I am aware although the Regt do appear to get away with CS95 I notice.
If you can't make it to the ensign in the right dress or whatever, why not speak to a mate in Admin or Air Traffic or wherever to see if they can do it for you? There is not so much of a them and us culture with aircrew / ground branch that someone wouldn't help out surely? - eg their office is right next to the ensign. I personally have helped people out in this regard on occasion even though I work away from SHQ.