Spats are the only way to rock hose tops.

The high school band where I played the 'Pipes, we used hose tops and wore black Navy Oxfords and the white spats to fill in the gap between the hose and the shoe.

Now, we wore a "military~ish" uniform...White, single-breasted tunic with wings, plaid, Kilt, piper's sporran (chromed steel and long horse-hair), argyle hose tops, spats and shoes. In the winter, we wore a Brittish wool jacket (forget the name of it though). I remember it was green/olive drab and was short like an Ike (Eisenhower) Jacket.

In a civilian attire, I'd think that spats would really only look good if worn in a very formal dress...tux jacket, Prince Charlie, full face sporran, walking cane and similar. Now on the other hand, if you had a slight military look (Horse-hair sporran, black navy oxfords, Baskethilt and Dirk and a military~ish jacket), you may be able to pull it off in that respect.

...but this is just my personal opinion.