I think that the answer to your question about why not longer kilts lies in the text of your last post: women wear longer skirts...when the kilt gets too long it looks like a skirt and not a kilt. I figger that the range of kilt length is from the bottom to just over the top of the knee cap...anywhere else and it either looks like a mini-skirt or a hostess skirt.

The wading socks from Cabela's have been brought up as a kilt hose alternative and I might suggest that you try wearing those and maybe doubling up with a pair of thinner synthetic knee socks underneath...you can turn the tops of the wading socks up over the tops of your knees when you're outside and they look so darn grey and wooly and scratchy that no one is going to mistake them for anything other than big, grey, wooly, scratchy socks. When you get where you're going, just turn the tops down to a respectable cuff and you should look okay.

All this obsession with dealing with the cold weather! If you physically can't take the cold while wearing a kilt (not to be a wise-*** here, but...) just wear long-johns and your LL Bean flannel lined jeans or your ski pants and change when you get there...honest, this is not some kind of macho contest to see how miserable you can be and still keep a stiff upper lip; it's just about wearing the kilt and looking good and feeling good about it, nothing more.

Best

AA