A Different take on White Kilt Hose

[Steve Ashton]

I am of the suspicion that the white hose thing came from the 1960's when you just were not anyone unless you had a pair of hand knit hose in fisherman cables knit with love by your granny. They were almost always cream or ecru, thick and terribly hot. But they were made by granny so you wore them with pride.

It seemed in those days that everyone had these hand knit cable hose Some had large 'bobbles' which I am told were called "Piper's knots".

[kingandrew]

Steve,

Those are some pretty impressive white socks. I can't say I would ever feel underdressed wearing them, no matter what the occasion. But there is no doubt that the cookie-cutter look of hired kilt outfits has done much to undermine the white sock cachet.

Andrew

[OC Richard]

I am of the suspicion that the white hose thing came from the 1960's when you just were not anyone unless you had a pair of hand knit hose in fisherman cables knit...almost always cream or ecru, thick and terribly hot.

At least in my experience the thing went in three distinct stages:

1) cream/ecru ordinary Day hose beginning to be worn with Prince Charlies. This, as you say, possibly came in around the 1960s. These hose were the ordinary mass-produced fairly thin Day hose with large diamonds knit into the turnover cuff.

These were the standard Day hose when I started kiltwearing (mid 1970s) and came in Ecru, Lovat green, Lovat blue, and Oatmeal (the colour-names used at the time). Sometimes I also saw these offered in Navy blue, Bottle green, moss green, sky blue, claret, and black.

Pipe Major Evan MacRae (right) wearing ecru Day hose and ghilles with Evening dress 1980



2) cream heavy handknit Arran hose. These had elaborate diamond and cable patterns. They came in AFAIK in the mid-1970s. By around 1980 if your band didn't have these, and was still wearing the thinner hose mentioned above, you announced to everyone that your band was out of the loop.



It was quite a fad for bands to wear Arran hose with Prince Charlies, no vests, long ties, hairy sporrans, Balmoral bonnets, and Ghillie brogues.

Two Canadian pipe bands in 1976





3) Pure white bobble top Pipers Socks. These were rather plain except for the super-thick "popcorn" or "bobble" tops. These blew into the pipe band world around 1990 and if your band was still wearing their heavy cream Arran hose you looked like you just came in from the sticks. BTW you could buy the bobble/popcorn tops separately, and put them over the cuffs of inexpensive ordinary Day hose.



The pure gleaming white hose held sway for decades, until around five years ago when they just as suddenly became unfashionable. Now it's "anything but white" in the pipe band world.