In the Absense of Diced or Full Argyll

[imbrius]

It's black tie season for me right now what with installations of officers, Burns Nights, awards banquets, etc.

I own neither diced evening hose, nor full argyll knit hose. I do have argyll-top hose, however, and many solid colours.

Is there a formality scale of solid-colour hose? And where do the argyll-top fit in? Thanks!

[OC Richard]

It's like so many other things...there's "the tradition" from our earliest images of Highland Dress, throughout the Victorian era, and reaffirmed in the reorganization of Highland Dress in the early 20th century of wearing diced or tartan hose with formal attire on the one hand, and what people do nowadays on the other hand.

I think the wearing of plain/selfcoloured hose (which AFAIK were introduced in the mid-19th century, in grey or brown, for tweed Outdoor Dress) with Evening Dress started taking off in the 1960s and has been firmly intrenched by the Kilt Hire Industry.

So for stick-in-the-mud traditionalists (like me) it still looks strange to wear Day hose with Evening Dress, but don't let that stop you! People have been doing so for a half-century now, and it's not going away. It's basic economics.

For my eye it would be best to avoid the very Outdoor-looking colours like the Lovats and beige and cream etc. The stronger tartanlike colours work better with Evening Dress for my eye, like claret, tartan green, deep blue, etc.

It's the one time that I might go against my normal thing of avoiding a tartan's main colours for the hose; for if we're using plain hose as ersatz Evening hose they might as well blend in with the kilt.

I've posted this photo before, a gathering of top pipers, men who have worn Highland Dress most of their lives.

They're wearing either tartan hose or plain hose calculated to blend with the tartan, the exception being the fellow on far left, with the charcoal hose.

Note that only one gent is wearing shoe buckles, which had long been de rigueur with Evening Dress.