Question about hose

[Lachlan09]

In all my years performing on-stage with my father and brother in our trio in the 1960's-70's, we always wore cream-coloured kilt hose. Ours were always home-hand-knitted with decorative (Aran-like) tops and invariably sourced from the little old Highland and Orcadian ladies my dad knew. The same ladies used to make Aran jumpers in the same type of cream wool (not worn with our kilts on-stage). My Mum was a wiz at keeping them bright without going yellow. I haven’t a clue how she did it, but they were always hand-washed and never hung to dry, but instead laid on a towel.

They were made long by design, so they weren’t just pulled up and folded over the garter –flash strap - these had extra length so you folded them down, so that the top of the fold-over was just touching the base of that little protruding bone below the knee, then pulled back up so that the open end of the hose finished up facing upward and just a tiny tad below the top of the fold-over. A bit like wearing those long football and rugby socks of the 1940’s/50’s.

Of all the Highland people we knew then, from TV and radio Gaelic performers, ceilidh singers to Gaelic choirs, I cannot recall any performer or audience wearing tartan hose at “normal” ceilidhs and concerts. Many wore white hose, either factory white (which I thought too thin and too snow-blind white) or hand-knitted cream hose, some wore Lovat or other self-coloured hose on-stage. Even toshed up in evening wear, I can only remember one Gaelic TV and recording performer who wore tartan hose, in yellow MacLeod tartan. The rest chose white or cream.

I liked my cream Aran hose, they looked clean and uncluttered, the thicker knit made legs look manly if you had the legs (luckily we did) and today in Scotland at least, I believe they are still the most common form of hose for kilts, along with self-coloured wool hose. I always thought that tartan hose and especially those shiny black strappy shoes with buckles on the toes looked effeminate, like Clarks wee lassie shoes. But we all have our opinions. It would be a shame if we all dressed the same.