"Viking Style" Brouge lacing?

[Jock Scot]

Ivor.

I don't want to appear rude, but I and others have plainly said its down to you what you wear and how you wear it. If you want to wear white hose then wear them. Yes! Some will see white hose as an attire faux pas and others will not. That is a fact and you are fully aware of that. I honestly do not understand you reluctance on this subject..

I have no idea what a pair of white hose will cost, but say £20/£30? I have not looked recently but the last time I was in a gun shop I saw a very decently made pair of coloured shooting hose of a make that I regularly wear with the kilt on sale for £50. Is that too expensive for you? There are coloured shooting hose on sale, elsewhere for four plus times that amount if you so choose, but necessary? Personally I think not.

I suppose it depends on what you can afford, but if a few £'s more for a coloured pair of socks, at a very reasonable price, that with care can be worn fairly often and takes you away from your reluctance to wear coloured hose helps, then for goodness sake buy them! Personally, I don't think that you will regret it. Don't just sit there, just typing away wondering if you are about to fall through "thin ice". You won't whatever you choose to do! But for a small extra investment, you might find that the choice opens up a whole new spectrum of choice for you.

[FossilHunter]

Ivor.

I don't want to appear rude, but I and others have plainly said its down to you what you wear and how you wear it. If you want to wear white hose then wear them. Yes! Some will see white hose as an attire faux pas and others will not. That is a fact and you are fully aware of that. I honestly do not understand you reluctance on this subject..

I have no idea what a pair of white hose will cost, but say £20/£30? I have not looked recently but the last time I was in a gun shop I saw a very decently made pair of coloured shooting hose of a make that I regularly wear with the kilt on sale for £50. Is that too expensive for you? There are coloured shooting hose on sale, elsewhere for four plus times that amount if you so choose, but necessary? Personally I think not.

I suppose it depends on what you can afford, but if a few £'s more for a coloured pair of socks, at a very reasonable price, that with care can be worn fairly often and takes you away from your reluctance to wear coloured hose helps, then for goodness sake buy them! Personally, I don't think that you will regret it. Don't just sit there, just typing away wondering if you are about to fall through "thin ice". You won't whatever you choose to do! But for a small extra investment, you might find that the choice opens up a whole new spectrum of choice for you.

For example, usakilts, a sponsor of this forum carries a range of hose at different price points and lists black or white economy hose for $16.99 but for only $10 more, they have fairly inexpensive colored hose in 8 colors besides black and white. For $26.99 I would definitely go with one of those over the white hose. They have a higher percentage of wool in the blend as well.

[OC Richard]

What sparked this discussion really was viewing this video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=hvHeTArCnYQ - showing groups of Scottish country dancers of which the majority of the men taking part are obviously wearing the dreaded white socks.

That video is from 11 years ago, when white socks hadn't yet become unfashionable in some circles.

Fashions come and go, and with Highland Dress the thing that changes most often are the hose.

White hose suddenly became standard in kilt hire and the pipe band world and with many other kiltwearers in the late 1980s into the early 1990s only to become suddenly out of fashion around 2010.

(I'm talking the pure gleaming white hose, not the ecru/cream/offwhite hose which were in fashion for the 15 years or so prior to the pure white hose replacing them.)

[OC Richard]

there are certain parts of Highland dress where common sense doesn't fully explain how to wear the thing without some context. This is why so many people put the pleats to the front. Their "common sense" tells them that it would be reasonable to sit on the flat part and have the swishy bits in front where your knees move. They just don't know any better, and the garment itself doesn't have an obvious front or back if one doesn't know which is which.

Very true, and as you say it's one of the most common mistakes we see.

At kilted weddings I'm piping at I'm often the only person who has worn a kilt before. While I've not seen Groom or Groomsmen put their on kilts backwards what I have seen is putting the kilts' under-apron across their backside, leaving the thigh exposed all the way up on one side.

The most common thing is separating the flashes so that one is on the outside of the leg and one on the inside, Sir Sean style.



When I buy new flashes I stitch the two bits together so they're quicker to put on neatly, and I wish Kilt Hire firms would do likewise.

[Ivor]

That video is from 11 years ago, when white socks hadn't yet become unfashionable in some circles.

Fashions come and go, and with Highland Dress the thing that changes most often are the hose.

White hose suddenly became standard in kilt hire and the pipe band world and with many other kiltwearers in the late 1980s into the early 1990s only to become suddenly out of fashion around 2010.

I really don’t wish to harp on about white hose as such fairly trivial matters seem to attract
attention out of all proportion to their importance. To put this into context, however, I am presently enjoying a New Year break at a well known Scottish hotel where virtually every kilted person is wearing, yes you’ve guessed it, white socks😵*💫.
I have resisted the temptation to point out to them the error of their ways, principally because they are bigger than me but also because, quite frankly, it is none of my business how they choose to dress, even if they asked. So there you are. Many Scottish people, in Scotland, wearing kilts and obviously none of whom have heard of the antipathy towards white socks.

[OC Richard]

I cannot for the life of me get the hang of these more artistic terminologies such as "bison", " teal" and so on.

Happily "teal" and "taupe" aren't vague fashion labels but creatures, the colours of which can plainly be seen.

Taupe, above, in English a mole, whose coat is midway between grey and brown.

Teal, below, is a bird, the colour-name "teal" coming from that small bit of greenish-bluish feathers.



The hose that Cheviot calls "bison" would be called "taupe" by many Americans. Here are mine:



As to the bison, they're sort of tri-coloured, so you have options.

[OC Richard]

About the comings and goings of hose colour fashion, in Victorian times we only have one large colour sample, The Highlanders Of Scotland, in which we can see over 50 pairs of hose

30 diced
13 tartan
5 taupe
5 mid-grey
1 charcoal grey.

In The Kilt (1914) it is stated that Morning Dress hose should not be tartan.

My catalogues from the 1930s state, concerning the hose worn with Outdoor/Morning/Field/Day Dress:

"self-coloured to match the tweed jacket and vest" (sic)

"plain stockings in a shade to tone with the jacket"

These catalogues don't list the hose colours offered, but a 1950s catalogue offers Lovat blue, Lovat green, and Fawn. I have colour photos from that time showing men at Highland Games wearing these very colours with matching tweed jackets.

Catalogues from the 1970s are offering ecru, navy, bottle green, fawn, Lovat blue, and Lovat green. A catalogue from 2009 offers these exact colours.

With Pipe Bands, they nearly all wore tartan or diced hose up until the 1970s when most went with "natural" Aran hose or ecru/cream ordinary kilt hose.

With the 1990s came the pure white "popcorn top" hose, and more recently black, charcoal, and navy have taken hold.

[Jock Scot]

O.C.R.

Having shot rather more than a few teal during many shooting seasons, I am well aware what a cock(male) teal looks like. Unfortunately, that wonderful bird, has many colours to chose from, how is a non artistic eye to tell which colour to choose ? In passing, teal are also splendid to eat.

I have trapped many hundreds, thousands probably, of moles during a long agricultural career in various parts of the UK, British moles seem to me more black with a wee tint of grey. Does that accurately describe taupe?

By the way, I have never heard of a mole called a "taupe". Maybe they are called "taupe" in parts of Britain, but not in the parts of Britain that I frequent.

Bison described as a colour I actually understand as brown, but why not just call it brown?

[Ivor]

Taupe is the French word for that creature you have been trapping all these years, Jock. I would agree with you that its colour is a very dark grey, verging on black that I recall from my days tying flies with the fur. Perhaps these names for different colours is just a way of romanticising what is actually just a rather dull and boring shade. I mean who would actually choose to wear brown when bison has a certain cachet about it? But of course if you really want to stand out there are more vibrant shades - like white🫢

[Jock Scot]

Taupe is the French word for that creature you have been trapping all these years, Jock. I would agree with you that its colour is a very dark grey, verging on black that I recall from my days tying flies with the fur. Perhaps these names for different colours is just a way of romanticising what is actually just a rather dull and boring shade. I mean who would actually choose to wear brown when bison has a certain cachet about it? But of course if you really want to stand out there are more vibrant shades - like white��

Well done Ivor!

You beat me to it. According to some French friends that I happened to be speaking to just, they confirm that "taupe" or more accurately, "la taupe" is the French word for a mole.