Advice on some colours/accessories for my wedding kilt.

[OC Richard]

complimenting the kilt, not contrasting it, when it comes to the other colours.

If I had a Royal Stewart kilt, I'd probably be looking at having ties/flashes be in claret/dark red/dark crimson, ivory, dark yellow/mustard, or maybe black. Not to compete with the kilt but to accentuate it.

I see that we're using the word "compliment" in opposite ways.

You're using it to mean matching the kilt's colours, matching the red, white, yellow, and black in Royal Stewart in your example.

In art-speak "complimentary" has specific meaning. Complimentary colours are pairs of colours opposite on the Colour Wheel. Examples of complimentary colours are:

blue and orange
red and green
purple and yellow

In other words pairs of colours in complete opposition, as opposite as two colours can be, as far from matching each other as possible.

Thus my suggestion of Old Gold hose for a kilt with purple in it; those hose would compliment the kilt in the literal meaning of the word.

Another very effective thing with hose colour is to use what are called Analogous Colours, that is, colours side-by-side on the colour wheel.

My Isle of Skye kilt has no blue, no claret, but both hose colours look great. Why? They're analogous to the purple in the kilt. There's a colour-shift that happens with the eye that makes the kilt's colours more vibrant.

Having the accessories match the colours in a kilt tends to dull the tartan's colours, in effect drain the colour out of the kilt.

all the groomsmen in grey granite tartan kilts, with matching grey Argyll jackets and 5 button waistcoats, white shirts, light grey sporrans and charcoal socks.

I'm not a fan of this current fad of grey tartans. That colourless outfit sounds visually just about as dull as possible. Highlanders have always loved colour!

For those not familiar with colours and how they work, here ya go!

Highlanders have always understood these concepts. Note that a very large number of tartans are based on the fundamental pair of complimentary colours red and green.

Another vast number of tartans are based on a pair of analogous colours, green and blue.

In Highland military uniform, green-based tartan paired with a red jacket is a clear case of following the principle of complimentary colour.



Complimentary colours in practice. The all-time master was Van Gogh



Tartan using only two complimentary colours