Quote Originally Posted by OC Richard View Post
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.
Good point, I forgot about the colour wheel definitions there, I guess in those terms I mean shades and tones, and analogous colours but not literally the exact same colour. So if I was going to build off the red in Royal Stewart for my hose, my initial thoughts would be to aim at dark red, or mustard not actually the same bright red colour of the kilt.



For what I'm thinking for my actual wedding kilt, I'm looking at using tints, tones and shades of the colours in my tartan, and of analogous colours. Hence, at least for now the navy, ancient blue, dark purple choices. I'll have it all with me in a few weeks, and I'll get it on with some pictures, and photoshop the colours to see if I should make some changes.

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!
I agree, I'm not likely to want it or wear it ever in my life. It looked good for a wedding taken in isolation, but didn't look that good for THCD, and was something one of my cousins suggested for me that I really didn't like, I felt it would not express me and my fiancee at all. Then again, they were the only people in grey jackets at their wedding, and there were maybe 70 odd other kilts there. Again, in Scotland, to my mind I can see why people go with it, it stands out from the potential myriad of other kilts & jackets that could appear. So I can understand on some level why it has emerged in Scotland at least.