Hose

[Truitt]

Good question and one that every new kilt wearer has. For me when I first started wearing the kilt regularly I would match my hose to a colour in the kilt like so:


Other times I would do as Steve suggested and match the hose to my shirt:


These days I am less concerned about what matches and after some time wearing the kilt, I did wear it daily for 5 years, I find I am better equipped to make more interesting choices like below:


Either way you choose to go it is fine there is no wrong way to do this, above all wear what you are comfortable with. Another thought I had was to point you in the direction of the 1 kilt 10 looks thread that Jamie and I did some time ago:
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...-attire-46888/

And I generally "coordinate" my hose with my shirt. I was taught to match my socks with my shirt(and my shoes with my belt) when wearing trousers, and it only makes sense to carry it over to kilt-wear. Steve has good fashion sense, and I would advise following it even though I do on occasion button the bottom button of my waistcoat

[McMurdo]

Take a look at the photos below from recent Tartan Tuesdays, notice that we all wear different hose but they all work with our respective outfits and quite a few of us are wearing hose that don't match anything in our kilts.







The Highland way of wearing the kilt has little or nothing to do with Saxon wear you can mix patterns and colours differently than when wearing trousers.

[OC Richard]

"Divorce need from necessity"

Now that's a puzzler!

For me the two words are synonyms.

Wondering about it, I looked it up, in an Oxford dictionary (so as not to muddy the waters with American usage) and "need" and "necessity" are each defined with the other.

[OC Richard]

when I first started wearing the kilt regularly I would match my hose to a colour in the kilt

Oh yes me too! As a mea culpa I did start out in the Pipe Band world, where matchy-matchyness was then and is now more common than in the normal civilian traditional Highland Dress world.

I remember clearly seeing, when I was a relatively new kilt-wearer, seeing Scottish fiddler John Turner wearing a vivid purple kilt with vivid scarlet hose and thinking it atrocious, but nowadays I would think it OK.

I actually did a little thread about my personal evolution, starting out with my ultra-matchy outfit from the 1980s which I was quite proud of at the time.

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...0-years-77108/

My most matchy outfit, which happily I don't seem to have a single photo of, was when I used to wear a Black Watch kilt with matching dark green hose and dark green Argyll jacket. I was just one big blob of green!

By the time I got my Isle Of Skye kilt a few years ago I knew that if there was any colour I would never wear with it, it would be purple! But oh yes back in the 80s I would have gone whole-hog with purple hose and necktie and who knows what else.

PS those Tartan Tuesdays photos are fantastic. How I wish there was something like that here.

[Liam]

Now that's a puzzler!

For me the two words are synonyms.

Wondering about it, I looked it up, in an Oxford dictionary (so as not to muddy the waters with American usage) and "need" and "necessity" are each defined with the other.

I am more familiar with the expression "separating needs from wants".

[Jock Scot]

Now that's a puzzler!

For me the two words are synonyms.

Wondering about it, I looked it up, in an Oxford dictionary (so as not to muddy the waters with American usage) and "need" and "necessity" are each defined with the other.

Well, perhaps. I think that the dictionary with its rather exacting definitions mixed with American usage misses the subtleties of the English language particularly of some 6/7 decades ago.

I well remember discussing with my Grandfather at length, which got rather heated overtime, the need for him to get a new fishing rod as his was rather tired after many years of use and countless battles with the Atlantic salmon. His answer was," no my boy, it will see me out and besides whilst I may need a new fishing rod it really is not necessary". Well it was true. the line still went out arrow straight even in a gale with the unhurried grace of a practiced spey caster and dealt with many more salmon, so what did I know on the subject?

Well that was, until my Grandfather hooked a huge salmon. Quite the biggest that I have ever seen in a pretty long life, probably well over fifty pounds. Up and down the river this huge fish swam, not too bothered that it was attached to someones fly and this tussle went on for well over an hour during which a small crowd of ghillies and general onlookers from the estate had gathered to watch and add unwanted advice. Eventually the fish began to tire and we all dared to think that we might even get to land this monster, closer and closer this monster came and then ...... the rod shattered into several bits---- and the inevitable happened Grandfather lost the fish as he could not control it.

Any fisherman will know the situation. A stunned silence ensued, not a word issued forth for what seemed like an hour, but probably a minute. Until Grandfather turned round and said to the crowd in general and me in particular, "well at least we can now agree that a new rod is a necessity!"

[WillowEstate]

I agree with you, Jock, many such nuances are lost today but what can we expect with some of the new "words" (I use the term loosely) that the Oxford is including in its hallowed pages?

Perhaps to contrast need and necessity, it might help to see the word "necessity" as a synonym of "essential" in ths context. I suppose that's the significant factor really, context.

I suspect this decline started at about the same time English grammar, as opposed to literature, was not taught in British schools with the same rigour as in my schooldays in the 50s. The superficial nature is somewhat akin to the way "pyjama cricket" has all but destroyed the strategic 3- and 5-day game we all loved, or the idea that the seasons are related in some way to the calendar or the weather, when in reality, they relate only to the orbit of the earth around the sun.

[Roderick Powell]

Take a look at the photos below from recent Tartan Tuesdays, notice that we all wear different hose but they all work with our respective outfits and quite a few of us are wearing hose that don't match anything in our kilts.







The Highland way of wearing the kilt has little or nothing to do with Saxon wear you can mix patterns and colours differently than when wearing trousers.

For Scottish Country Dancing in South Dorset ,as a tradition we all wore ivory Kilt hose with red or green garter tops. No red or white in my Kilt tartan. Most of the Kilties were Scottish Ex Patriots........... Roderick Powell

Roderick Powell

[Roderick Powell]

I agree with you, Jock, many such nuances are lost today but what can we expect with some of the new "words" (I use the term loosely) that the Oxford is including in its hallowed pages?

Perhaps to contrast need and necessity, it might help to see the word "necessity" as a synonym of "essential" in ths context. I suppose that's the significant factor really, context.

I suspect this decline started at about the same time English grammar, as opposed to literature, was not taught in British schools with the same rigour as in my schooldays in the 50s. The superficial nature is somewhat akin to the way "pyjama cricket" has all but destroyed the strategic 3- and 5-day game we all loved, or the idea that the seasons are related in some way to the calendar or the weather, when in reality, they relate only to the orbit of the earth around the sun.

OC Richard. I enjoy confusing people, Yesterday I invited a German Lady to join me for breakfast at a Cornish Youth Hostel.

I was wearing my Scottish Kilt. The lady proudly announced. "I understand the English .I do not understand you .You are Scottish."

My response was; "Well, my dear lady, I learnt to speak English at an English Grammar School. Perhaps that is why you do not understand
me." Roderick Powell

Roderick Powell."

[Roderick Powell]

OC Richard. I enjoy confusing people, Yesterday I invited a German Lady to join me for breakfast at a Cornish Youth Hostel.

I was wearing my Scottish Kilt. The lady proudly announced. "I understand the English .I do not understand you .You are Scottish."

My response was; "Well, my dear lady, I learnt to speak English at an English Grammar School. Perhaps that is why you do not understand
me." Roderick Powell

Roderick Powell."

Many years ago we were discussing the problems Young foreign visitors face with aggressive males.The German O Pair girl present ment to say
"I can stand up for myself." Instead her reply was " I can support any man." So we called her Girder. Roderick Powell.