What color of hose?

[ccga3359]

White.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

White.

[JockScot]"Any color but white!"[/JockScot]

......sorry, I couldn't resist!

[OC Richard]

White.

Well, I'm a piper and I hang out with the pipe band scene and at least among those people white has recently and rapidly declined in popularity.

It's funny about the pipe band scene, how various things come into fashion and then fall out of fashion.

In the late 70's and early 80's all the bands just had to have the handknit offwhite/cream bulky Aran knit hose.

Then in the late 80's all the top bands suddenly switched to pure white hose with plain bodies but thick knit tops, the "bobble top" hose. All of a sudden if your band was wearing offwhite/cream hose the people "in the loop" would mutter "tsk tsk" to each other.

For the last 20 years those pure white bobble top hose have been nearly universal in the top echelons of the pipe band world. Year after year every single band in the Grade One finals at the Worlds Pipe Band Championships wore them.

But then around two or three years ago many of the top bands bailed on the white hose and switched to black or an extremely dark navy blue. Others went to charocal grey, mid grey, Lovat blue, ancient blue, indeed anything but white.

Some bands who were somewhat in the backwater, out of the loop, had finally just dumped their cream hose for pure white only to find that the "big boys" were now dumping white for black.

Anyhow at this time it's around 50-50 but most of the bands still wearing white are scrambling to switch.

Bottom line, in the pipe band world white is fine if you want to look ten to twenty years behind in fashion.

Here's another shot of the grey hose: