Hose flash question

[Rlail]

Good Morning!


Thanks for all the help and advice with my first kilt! Now I'm looking for the second one. I wanted one in my Mothers family, the MacQueens. Being a smaller family, this has been harder to find, affordably. I recently however, found one at UTKILTS. Now, I know this may be considered a "pub kilt", and I'm OK with that.

My question being, I've haven't been able to find flashes that match. Would grey hose with a plain red flash look ok? I found one site, that seemed a little shady, and didn't really see anything else that was on the lower end of the price spectrum. ( My college age daughter wanted to buy for me as a Christmas present, and college=almost broke )

[Father Bill]

Don't even try to match. That's a Saxon thing.

Highland Scots wore a variety of rather wild colours, with, believe it or not, red being considered by many individuals to be the most 'neutral' since it rarely matched anything except for any6 red in the kilt, which is very common of course.

[OC Richard]

In the old days flashes were usually red, less often green, and rarely any other colour.

No regard was taken of the colour of the kilt, or the hose, or anything else.

Often in matters of Highland Dress it's interesting to take a look at what's done in the army. Yes the army will sometime embrace new and/or odd choices of dress but generally they hold on to the old way of wearing something, sometimes long after it has gone extinct in civilian Highland Dress.

So here you see the traditional red flashes. The only red in the rest of the uniform, for many soldiers, would be the tiny wool ball on the top of his Glengarry bonnet. In this case he has a specialist badge (patch) on his sleeve which is bordered in red.

Also note that his shoes are black and his leather sporran is brown which was standard in civilian Highland Dress until the 1970s or 1980s.



Personally I prefer to not repeat the main colours of the kilt in the accessories.

I do like the flashes to look good with the hose, a nice contrast, so if the hose a a cool colour like blue or green I would use red flashes, if the hose are a warm colour like red or brown I would use blue or green flashes.

So here I have taupe hose and blue flashes. There's no blue in the rest of my outfit. There is blue on my pipes, but I wore those same blue flashes when there wasn't blue on my pipes. I just think those flashes look good with those hose.



In this photo I'm wearing blue hose and claret flashes. Neither blue or red occur in the kilt at all. (The kilt is purple and green.) Once again the choice of colour of the hose and flashes is based on what looks good together rather than matching anything in the rest of the outfit. I would never consider wearing matching purple hose or flashes- the kilt takes care of that.

[Steve Ashton]

The thing to remember is that what are called today "Flashes" are a modern invention.

They are small tabs of ribbon hanging down from elastic Garters.

Before elastic, the Garters were lengths of ribbon, leather or knit fabric tied around the leg to hold the hose up.

The Garters are what do the work. The flashes are decoration simulating the ends of hand-tied garters. A "little splash of color" in an outfit.

As hand tied Garters would normally be solid colored the ends that hang down would also be solid colored.
The early flashes were all solid colored.

Only quite recently did the idea of flashes, made from small pieces of Tartan fabric left-over from making the kilt, come about. More than likely by some enterprising kilt maker trying to find a use for the scraps instead of throwing them away.
The first time I ever saw Tartan flashes was on a Scottish Rental company website. They looked odd at the time. But, as with many things today, Tartan flashes are now thought of as "Normal" and even "required" by some.
Things change. But I do not, and never will, own Tartan flashes.

But I do own several pair of hand tied garters in different solid colors. I will most often chose the color of my garters to bring out a minor color from somewhere else in my outfit. Say, a minor stripe in the Tartan or my tie or pocket square.

[Tobus]

Would grey hose with a plain red flash look ok?

Yes, absolutely. As others have mentioned, red flashes or garters are the most traditional choice, no matter what kilt you're wearing. I know people like to put a lot of thought into matching or co-ordinating their flashes to other bits of an outfit, but I pretty much stick with red woollen knit garter ties. They go with everything.

[Tomo]

The only red in the rest of the uniform, for many soldiers, would be the tiny wool ball on the top of his Glengarry bonnet.

Not wanting to open up a can of worms - but back in the day most British regiments also wore red jackets up until @1900.

[figheadair]

There have been a couple of comments along the lines of 'in the old days' garters were red and a solid colour. In fact, the oldest surviving examples are all striped and the MacIntyres of Cladich were famous for weaving them.
Here are a pair of John Brown's garters made by them.

John Brown - Claddaich Garters.jpg

[Rlail]

Thanks for all the Answers! Looks like I'll have to get another solid for the McNeil Kilt

[imbrius]

I own a few pairs of flashes that my lady made for me and two pair of garter ties that I got from House of Cheviot. By far the flashes that see the most use are the red ones, simply because they don't clash with most of my hose, save the claret. Were I to wear those, I would choose the green flashes instead.

I have black flashes as well but I don't wear those nearly as often; mainly with the mustard hose if the rest of my outfit has other bright colours and I want to tone it down a notch.

I have burgundy and navy garter ties that I wear for dressier occasions where the brighter colours of my flashes would look a bit out of place and the black ones would not be appropriate.

[Tomo]

If you like the vintage style figheadair mentions - used but prob. not vintage-vintage (or perhaps even authentic - although they are wool and for sale in Scotland) I came across these on ebay with a very low starting price:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Scottish-...IAAOSwqARfxkrz