Advice on my next kilt

[Phillip1114]

Hello everyone, I have a question. I am about to purchase my next kilt in the MacDonald tartan which is red in color with green. I was wondering what accessories would look best with this tartan, hose, flashes etc...
I have searched online for photos of anyone wearing this tartan to see what they were wearing with it but I can only find photos with them wearing white hose. I have a pair of white hose I purchased with my first kilt but I no longer wear them, my black or my bottle green look better with my Black Watch tartan (and I've read all the threads about white hose). So any advise you could give me would be helpful and much appreciated.
Thank you.

[Riverkilt]

There are always lots of options cousin. I accumulated a rainbow of kilt hose colors. Its often amazing the color combinations that work that you'd not guessed would. Hose can match tartan colors in the kilt, be neutral like khaki, gray, black - or match other colors in your turnout. All you need is a variety of kilt hose colors and a mirror to play around.

[Phillip1114]

Thanks Riverkilt. My problem right now is a lack of items to try with it. I have only three pair of hose, white, black and bottle green. These were purchased to go with my Black Watch tartan kilt and my Irish Heritage tartan kilt. My flashes are tartan flashes to match. Since the MacDonald tartan is mostly red with green I know I will need to purchase some accessories to go with it. I was just wondering what others wear mostly with their reddish kilts to get a general idea.

[Mikilt]

I usually wear lovat green, black or bottle green with red garter ties. Once I wore red socks with it.

[Riverkilt]

Aye, understand. I only have three pics with kilt hose and my generic Macdonald tartan (USA semi-trad)


Poor color in the fall light of Veteran's Day but these were dark green hose to match the green in the tartan.



And the maroon/claret(??) hose go well with the base color of the tartan.

And, here's black hose matching the shirt rather than the tartan.

[figheadair]

I was interested in the description of the Clan Donald sett as being a red tartan, I've always thought of it as a blue, green and black sett but the various images of modern weavings show why it could now be described as a red tartan. In these modern weavings the amount of blue and green has been reduced making the red far more predominant that the original setting - below where the red is clearly a series of overstripes on the blue and green fields.

[TheOfficialBren]

Look at that selvedge!! I have tartan envy, Peter!


I trust that this is one of yours? Lovely.

[figheadair]

Yes indeed. Clan Donald in natural dyes with traditional herringbone selvedge.

[Nathan]

I see it as a predominantly red tartan because, notwithstanding the fact that the red is a series of overstripes, 1) there are a lot of them, each colour block being created by one and four more stripes within each square. 2) It's the only colour that is present on every part of the kilt, while the blue, black and green backgrounds alternate. Depending on how dark the blue and bottle green appear in the lighting, the tartan can look like a series of red lines on a black background. Also, the smaller the set, the more red it looks.

I would consider the white on the Clanranald or Glengarry tartans to be a true overstripe.

It is for this reason that I avoid red hose with it. It still seems like a red tartan to me as opposed to say MacDonald of the Isles Hunting which is a blue and green tartan with red and white overstripes.

Your black hose or your bottle green hose will both work well. If you aren't wearing your white hose any more, you should buy a $3.00 box of dye and give them a new lease on life. I dyed two pairs of hose with tintex dye one yellow, one blue pair. I wear the blue pair often.

I also dyed a third pair but I used coffee and red wine and they came out a really nice camel colour. The dye will adhere less or more depending on the percentage of synthetic fibres in the hose.

As mentioned, plenty of colours work well. You can pick up any of the colours in the kilt with your hose and flashes, ignore the tartan entirely and coordinate with other items in your outfit, or not worry about matching at all and wear the first colour you pick up. It's really hard to go wrong.

Best of luck, cousin and please accept my apologies for the poor lighting in these cell phone photos.

bowfire.jpgrouge hike1.jpgRick MacDonald Kilted at Kingston Scottish Festival.jpgClan Donald.jpgIMG_20140323_094449.jpg

[Calgacus]

Hi Nathan,

All great choices, I particularly like the green hose with red/green diced tops as shown in your photos 2 & 5. I think those work really well.