Kilt hose

[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.

[OC Richard]

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

Mainstream pipe bands haven't worn cream hose since the 1980s. It was a huge fad then. In the 1990s they were replaced by pure white hose, which held sway until a couple years ago.

Now a Massed Bands at a Games in the UK or USA might feature zero bands in white hose...



The new addages in the pipe band world are "anything but white" and "black is the new white".

[Phil]

I would go along with Jock about "matching" as I feel there is just too much emphasis here on what goes with what when wearing a kilt. When it comes to formal dress, however, it was always expected that full tartan hose be worn to match the kilt. As the price is fairly prohibitive nowadays many here now wear self-coloured hose or hose with a tartan cuff as an alternative. There is nothing wrong with this and I fully agree with the choice but it does somewhat chime with the same individuals' disdain for white or off-white hose which are, essentially, as the self-coloured or argyle style are, just another cheap alternative to the proper full tartan hose.

[Joshua]

I personally match the items that are not with my kilt...

i.e. I'll wear red flashes with a red tie, etc...

However, as far as matching a color in my kilt... not so much.

Now matching leathers, that's my new "attempt" wearing black belts with brown leather sporran and strap, etc... and so far I'm fairly happy with the result...

[Mickey]

As I was reading this, I was formulating a response, only to find that OCRichard had posted pretty much my exact words, even to the point that my favorite hose are claret, no matter what tartan I'm wearing.

Jock really helped me get over my "matching" thing. Once you grasp the idea, it is almost as liberating as putting on a kilt.

[Bill aka Mole]

The first thing that I targeted was the piper in the front row wearing the spats.

[OC Richard]

The first thing that I targeted was the piper in the front row wearing the spats.

Yes and not only the Pipe Major, who of course is in the front rank, but also the rest of his band in the file behind him. It's rare nowadays to see bands wearing spats in competition. His band's entire uniform is a bit odd, in that they wear spats but civilian sealskin Evening Dress sporrans and beige Balmoral bonnets.

Usually when one sees spats at competitions here in the USA it's Police or Firefighter pipe bands who also wear horsehair sporrans.

(In Massed Bands each band occupies either one or two files depending on the number of pipers; the Pipe Majors are all in the front rank.)

[Laird_M]

Now have a lovely pair of lovat blue hose from MacDonald Sporrans (buy a kilt/hipflask/tankard and ebay) and a free discount code that anyone can use 'thanksfor5'.