Quote Originally Posted by OC Richard View Post
Originally hose needed garters to stay up. Even the hose I wore back in the 70s needed the garters to stay up. Since the hose were in effect suspended from the garters the garters were at the uppermost point in the foldover cuff, and much of the flashes ended up underneath the cuff.

The modern "Piper Socks" are powerfully elastic rather narrow tubes that grip tight to the calves, garter or no garter. Thus the garter-flashes are mere decoration.
Are "piper socks" different than regular kilt hose? I know that there have been some "bobble-top" or "popcorn-top" hose that were popular with pipe bands, but I thought these were just a visual difference in the turnover pattern and not a differently-constructed sock. I have also seen some pipe band hose that have a longer turnover for more adjustment, but are these any more elastic than regular hose?

I have kilt hose ranging from low-end synthetics to nicely-made House of Cheviot "Rannoch" and a couple pair of hand-knitted cabled hose. Not a single one of them will stay up on my legs all day long without garters, and I'm not even marching like pipe band members do. I think those of you with generous calves may take for granted that your garters/flashes are mere decoration, whilst they are very much still functional items for those of us with narrower calves. I've even tried exercizing my calf muscles to build up some bulk there to help with this, to no avail.

I wonder if the pipe band people you're talking about may be putting their garters lower in the turnover because that's nearer to the widest bulge of the calf where it does more good. If so, they would do well to try folding the flashes over the garter to shorten them up. This is just one of those individual adjustments for individual body shape that people aren't taught, but should be.