The hose would have to be a very DARK blue, like the LAPD blue it almost looks black or midnight blue, as long as its not light blue. The rule of thumb I use is that if I lay the kilt out, pair it with a shirt, and hose if there is something that just doesn’t look right then I'll swap out the shirt first because I only have two pairs of hose. I may be wrong, but I think if your shirt, hose and kilt have similar colors then you should be OK. Some people are braver than others are when it comes to color combinations, but then again we are all a brave lot for being kilted.