Kilt hose

[Laird_M]

OK, prompted from Harpenden thread...

Pretty much every seller sells white or cream hose, which its obvious people on here aren't too keen on.

What 'generic' colours of hose are there?

For example, my clan tartans are MacLeod. My MacLeod of Harris (Ancient) kilt is greens and blues. When I get my 'Loud and Proud' MacLeod of Lewis (Dress Modern) its yellow and black.

What colour hose should I go for?
Do certain colours 'match' better with certain kilt colours?
Do you need a different colour hose for each colour kilt?

[Paul Henry]

I find that a pair of lovat blue and lovat green go with most tartans, but I've also got black, and grey, and porridge, but I'd be happy with red or maroon.
If you want to play safe ,stick to the lovats, but don't worry too much, and in truth too much matching looks a little too organised!
I generally have a look through the sock drawer and find something I like, I don't generally agonise too much over it

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Well, there are certain colors that work with pretty much any tartan, and then there are even more colors that work with a large number of tartans.

For example, having hose in varying shades of greens or blues will do you well with many, many, tartans, given the predominance of these colors in most tartans. Even tartans which are mostly red often have minor blue or green elements which the hose can pick up on.

Many colors are more neutral, such as black, charcoal, grey, tan (khaki, oatmeal, etc), and you'll find these tone well with just about anything.

If you are looking for hose that will work for both your MacLeod of Harris and MacLeod of Lewis kilts, you can start with the colors they have in common, which are yellow, red, and black. I'd say red hose would work well for both kilts. Black would, as well, and likewise charcoal (which as a dark grey would tone well with the black in the tartans). Yellow would certainly look good with the Harris kilt, but I think that it might be a bit "too much" paired with the Lewis kilt.

I'm not saying that ONLY colors that appear in the tartan will work, but they do give you a good place to start.

And please note that it is not necessary that the color of the hose be an exact match with the tartan, only that they tone well together.

[Zardoz]

I'm with Matt, Red or Charcoal would work well with both tartans, Red especially with the Loud MacLeod!

[Joshua]

I'm with Matt, Red or Charcoal would work well with both tartans, Red especially with the Loud MacLeod!

Red with yellow garters!

The yellow garters would tie in everything regardless of the color of hose... charcoal, hunter green...

I actually would avoid any lovat blue/gree with the Loud MacLeod - mostly because it's a big bold primary colored kilt - why take it down a notch on the legs?

[Chas]

Martin, you are going to want more than one pair of hose. The time will come when, you will want to or have to, wear your kilt two days running. When there just isn't enough time to get hose washed and dried.

I am a great believer in eBay. There are often ex-rental hose on sale - generally white, but above all quite cheap. I bought a lot of 10 last year - 5 white and 5 dark grey. They are generally 20% wool and 80% man-made fibres. They can be dyed. They don't take a deep dye, but they certainly won't be white any more.

My hose (me on left) at the latest Harpenden:



I dyed these navy blue and they came out light blue. Dylon do a whole range of dyes, but tea will make a nice natural dye.

Or you could search out 'Big Mikey', a member here, and get him to make you a pair of hose toppers to match your kilt.

Regards

Chas

[Laird_M]

Thanks guys.

Started looking on evil-bay yesterday and found some quite nice ones relatively cheap.

Will get a few more as and when I have some spare cash. I quite like the black with red lion rampant or thistle.

[Jock Scot]

I wear the same tartan as you, MacLeod of Harris and never once have I ever thought about matching my hose to my kilt. Now if you want to delve through my past posts you will find that I wear, red, maroon(a lot), various shades of green, yellow, brownish and I think the colours all go with M of H. Mind you M of H is a forgiving tartan as it has several colours(5) in it and you could argue that almost any coloured hose will get you by with little effort-----apart from, funnily enough (if you are trying to match colours with the kilt), white! OK you may think otherwise and fair enough.

Alright, I am well known as not being a fan of white hose and the main reason is that I honestly think that they take the eye away from the most important thing the kilt and yes, I do think pipers can get away with it as people tend to look at the pipes and the nimble finger movements on the chanter, whilst the rest of us do not have that advantage. The "piper look" is fine if that is what you want, or are not bothered, but if you want to look at your sharpest in your kilt attire, then it is well worth you considering not spending your hard earned loot on white hose.

Can I suggest that you try to get away from this matching idea, it really is not a thing that Highlanders worry about too much. I know that many feel that they are in their comfort zone by matching this that and the other, but have a good look at some of the threads discussing non matching and study the hundreds(thousands) of super pictures here on this website and you will see that non matching-----even clashing----- can often be very effective with kilt attire.

Just something for you to consider, that is all.

[OC Richard]

This is certainly an area in which Jock Scot's contributions have been very helpful for me personally, and I might guess a great many other non-Highlanders on these boards.

I too was obsessed with colour matching, like so many American kiltwearers are.

It took many of Jock's posts and many photos of elegant kiltwearers (such as Prince Charles) to fully disabuse myself of the matchy-matchy syndrome.

I think of it like this: if you were wearing a sportcoat and trousers, you wouldn't match the two, but rather choose contrasting colours.

The more I see very elegant kilt outfits, the more I realise that more or less the same approach works for kilts. Rather than match, one can consider the kilt to be a single-coloured garment and choose a jacket and hose which contrast with it.

If I may offer up myself as an example, I really like these claret hose with my Isle of Skye kilt. I prefer also wearing a strong blue shirt to the grey shirt seen here. What makes it all work is the very fact that there is no claret and no blue in this tartan!

I'll try to get a photo of this kilt with a blue shirt and the claret hose so the effect can be seen, but in the meantime here it is with a grey shirt:



And I'll once again share this photo, perhaps the most brilliant example of non-matching (one might say clashing) hose, one of my favourite kits from The Highlanders Of Scotland:



White, black, and grey hose are all fine in that they don't clash with any tartan, but neither do they contribute anything to the overall outfit's colour.

In fact I've noticed that mid-grey hose can suck much of the colour out of some tartans, making lovely colourful tartans look dull.

Black, white, and charcoal hose don't do that.

In general you can't go wrong, with most tartans, with Lovat Blue, Lovat Green, Ancient Blue, Red, Navy Blue, or Archer Green.

[Laird_M]

Lots of great advice guys.

Like I said, I'm waiting for delivery of some lovat blue hose that will go nicely with the kilt, and will match, but not detract from the MoH plaid.

I'll keep my cream ones for if I ever join a pipeband.