Hose to Kilt Combo

**jsrnephdoc** · 14th February 25, 12:32 PM

Originally Posted by OC Richard

My standard advice is to avoid any of the tartan's main colours, in the accessories.

Looking at the photos (which as EagleJCS says is possible) I would say avoid at all costs the three colours that dominate the tartan: yellow, orange, and brown.

Almost everywhere else I've read (or watched; e.g., on USA Kilts's monthly Kilts and Culture videos, the typical advice is to pair the hose with a dominant color in the kilt and/or jacket/vest/sweater/whatever.

The guys at USA Kilts are also not fond of recent trends that seem to favor white or cream colored hose for formal (Prince Charlie or doublet) occasions.

I kilt when I can, but I'm virtually always the sole person so attired at any gathering so I'm flying blind except from looking at website pictures.

**Jock Scot** · 15th February 25, 03:39 AM

Originally Posted by jsrnephdoc

Almost everywhere else I've read (or watched; e.g., on USA Kilts's monthly Kilts and Culture videos, the typical advice is to pair the hose with a dominant color in the kilt and/or jacket/vest/sweater/whatever.

The guys at USA Kilts are also not fond of recent trends that seem to favor white or cream colored hose for formal (Prince Charlie or doublet) occasions.

I kilt when I can, but I'm virtually always the sole person so attired at any gathering so I'm flying blind except from looking at website pictures.

Just so you know, the traditional kilt-wearer in Scotland almost never wear black, white or cream coloured hose.That is more of a kilt hire outfit look. Most don't match or, even think about it, their hose to anything and various shades of red, greens, browns, blues and yellows are the usual choices for our hose and no real thought is given to matching anything else, although by accident they might match something else that might be being worn at the time.
For example my tartan has blue, green, red, black and yellow within it so its quite difficult to find hose that doesn't match something! The answer? Don't bother worrying about it!

**FossilHunter** · 15th February 25, 08:27 PM

Originally Posted by Jock Scot

Just so you know, the traditional kilt-wearer in Scotland almost never wear black, white or cream coloured hose.That is more of a kilt hire outfit look. Most don't match or, even think about it, their hose to anything and various shades of red, greens, browns, blues and yellows are the usual choices for our hose and no real thought is given to matching anything else, although by accident they might match something else that might be being worn at the time.
For example my tartan has blue, green, red, black and yellow within it so its quite difficult to find hose that doesn't match something! The answer? Don't bother worrying about it!

I believe you often wear mustard or claret hose which, perhaps unintentionally, match some of the minor colors in Macleod of Harris but in a non-matching shade. I think this often creates a nice look.

Matching without matching as it were.

That’s not to take away from your notion of not worrying too much about the hose color.

**Jock Scot** · 15th February 25, 09:54 PM

Yes you are quite right, I do often unintentionally match my hose to one of the colours in my kilt and I suppose the shades of colour may differ a tad? It is though an entirely unconscious act. I just go to the wardrobe and grab the first pair of hose that comes to hand. Until I joined this website all those years ago, I never even gave it a thought!

I suppose I could wear white or black hose? Well alright, perhaps not! Now that I think about it, black is a non starter, as that matches a stripe in my tartan too! Various shades of Brown perhaps? Oh to the devil with it, I shall just carry on carrying on as I have always done and not bother about it. :lol

**OC Richard** · 16th February 25, 09:43 AM

Originally Posted by jsrnephdoc

Almost everywhere else I've read (or watched; e.g., on USA Kilts's monthly Kilts and Culture videos, the typical advice is to pair the hose with a dominant color in the kilt and/or jacket.

With Jock Scot here you get the tradition-based Highland Scottish view of things.

With me you get the historical view on things (when wearing my Historian Hat) or the view grounded in standard colour and design concepts (when wearing my Art Degree/Art Department Hat).

With USA Kilts you get the current American view.

The truth is that in Highland Dress the concept of matching jacket and hose to the colours of the kilt has never existed. Anyone who proposed that is speaking from their own ideas, not of Highland Scottish ideas, nor of standard art design ideas.

Now putting on my Art Department hat, and purely speaking from a design standpoint, matching never works.

You wouldn't decorate the interior of your house having the walls, carpet, all furniture, all artwork on the walls the same colour.

The trick is to co-ordinate, which is the diametric opposite of match. That's why when you go to the paint section they'll have brochures giving three-colour paint schemes.

Three-colour schemes are also standard in fashion, and a Highland outfit can be viewed from a fashion standpoint (though as I said this isn't traditional).

With a Highland outfit you have three main bands of colour: jacket, kilt, hose. Co-ordinating these means NONE of them matching.

Now to put my Historian Hat on, there is indeed a longstanding practice in Highland Day Dress to match the tweed of the jacket to the hose colour. (The designer would balk at this! You have three colour-blocks, design revolves around "rules of three", why throw away one of the three?)

Yet, going back to Victorian times up through the 1960s there was a longstanding idea of matching tweed and hose. Articles about Highland Dress mention this over and over, and it's seen in countless paintings and photographs.

Here starting in the 1860s are fifteen examples of men matching their hose colour to their tweed jacket colour

**Jock Scot** · 18th February 25, 05:56 AM

I think the handmedown culture is still alive and well in Scotland, so I think that approximate fit is more important than colour and always has been. So we have become accustomed to seeing many and various colours of hose/tweed worn with the kilt over the years. So much so, now we experienced traditional types don't even notice or bother about it.

You chaps who are outwith Scotland are used to wearing and seeing brand new and new to you kilt attire and apply modern day colour matching thoughts. Its hardly surprising that the new modern day kilt wearer within Scotland and outwith Scotland are confused!

**jsrnephdoc** · 19th February 25, 08:23 AM

Originally Posted by OC Richard

putting on my Art Department hat, and purely speaking from a design standpoint, matching never works.

You wouldn't decorate the interior of your house having the walls, carpet, all furniture, all artwork on the walls the same colour.

The trick is to co-ordinate, which is the diametric opposite of match. That's why when you go to the paint section they'll have brochures giving three-colour paint schemes.

Three-colour schemes are also standard in fashion, and a Highland outfit can be viewed from a fashion standpoint (though as I said this isn't traditional).

So, clearly, given the range of opinions already expressed, there's NO consensus on what color hose to wear, other than that black, white, and cream are perhaps abominations birthed from simplicity of inventory maintenance by the kilt hire industry.

The 3-color palette approach makes some sense to me, and given that on many kilts there are ALREADY more than 3 present, it's possible to "pull" a narrow stripe into more interest by coordinating IT with the kilt. But it also seems obvious to me that the kilt and hose should NOT be in the kilt's dominant color, so long as they don't clash. And, living in America, I guess considering fashion makes some sense. But the tartan mills certainly have caught on to that as well, cranking out so many "new" color schemes even for family tartans (there are now more than 40 different options on most kilt shop's websites for "Robertson" tartans (many of them quite similar to each other, of course, just different sett sizes or cloth weights, but the "dark," "muted," "weathered," etc. variations are largely in existence to foster cloth sales.

So perhaps there are two DOMINANT opinions being voiced here. One is just to be sure that a kilt wearer is NOT monochromatic and that the kilt and hose should not intensify that. The other is "who cares?" Just wear whatever comes out of the drawer first, and since you never succumbed to the kilt hire shop mantra in the first place, your choices will NOT include white, black, or cream.

**FossilHunter** · 19th February 25, 08:37 AM

Originally Posted by jsrnephdoc

So, clearly, given the range of opinions already expressed, there's NO consensus on what color hose to wear, other than that black, white, and cream are perhaps abominations birthed from simplicity of inventory maintenance by the kilt hire industry.

The 3-color palette approach makes some sense to me, and given that on many kilts there are ALREADY more than 3 present, it's possible to "pull" a narrow stripe into more interest by coordinating IT with the kilt. But it also seems obvious to me that the kilt and hose should NOT be in the kilt's dominant color, so long as they don't clash. And, living in America, I guess considering fashion makes some sense. But the tartan mills certainly have caught on to that as well, cranking out so many "new" color schemes even for family tartans (there are now more than 40 different options on most kilt shop's websites for "Robertson" tartans (many of them quite similar to each other, of course, just different sett sizes or cloth weights, but the "dark," "muted," "weathered," etc. variations are largely in existence to foster cloth sales.

So perhaps there are two DOMINANT opinions being voiced here. One is just to be sure that a kilt wearer is NOT monochromatic and that the kilt and hose should not intensify that. The other is "who cares?" Just wear whatever comes out of the drawer first, and since you never succumbed to the kilt hire shop mantra in the first place, your choices will NOT include white, black, or cream.

I think the section I bolded is a pretty good summary of the thread thus far.