Familiarity Breeds Contempt

[McElmurry]

My wife says this young feller can wear whaterver color hose he wants.



When you are young, fit, and tan you can wear just about anything.

[Spartan Tartan]

McElmurry,

And he's wearing those dreadful ghillies too!

[Teufel Hunden]

McElmurry,

And he's wearing those dreadful ghillies too!

Serious question, I've been unable to get a grasp of this just reading the forum:

What's the deal with ghillies?

[Spartan Tartan]

Serious question, I've been unable to get a grasp of this just reading the forum:

What's the deal with ghillies?

My comment was a joke. I own a pair myself... There are those that don't care for them. Others have coined that phrase. Maybe I need to improve my typing sarcasm or improve my use of smiles

But I don't really know what the real problem is with Gillies. I think they look just fine. I don't much bother with what people wear for hose and footwear. I appreciate their styles and how they wear their outfit.

[longhuntr74]

Serious question, I've been unable to get a grasp of this just reading the forum:

What's the deal with ghillies?

There are several member who dislike Ghillie Brogues...one among them being our esteemed "Jock Scot." Not to speak for Jock or the others, but I think the general feeling by those that don't like them is that the common footwear of your average Scot is the standard brogue...and many people improperly wear ghillies to functions where they are inappropriate...such as black tie and white tie events where they should be wearing buckle brogues or some other form of formal flat.

I personally have nothing against ghillies...I think they look swell around the highland games and whatnot...but from a practical standpoint, I prefer to buy standard brogues so that I can use them with pants OR my kilt.

[Teufel Hunden]

My comment was a joke. I own a pair myself... There are those that don't care for them. Others have coined that phrase. Maybe I need to improve my typing sarcasm or improve my use of smiles

But I don't really know what the real problem is with Gillies. I think they look just fine. I don't much bother with what people wear for hose and footwear. I appreciate their styles and how they wear their outfit.

I knew it was a joke, so no worries there. I've just seen people being seriously critical about them in the past and was curious what fer.

There are several member who dislike Ghillie Brogues...one among them being our esteemed "Jock Scot." Not to speak for Jock or the others, but I think the general feeling by those that don't like them is that the common footwear of your average Scot is the standard brogue...and many people improperly wear ghillies to functions where they are inappropriate...such as black tie and white tie events where they should be wearing buckle brogues or some other form of formal flat.

I personally have nothing against ghillies...I think they look swell around the highland games and whatnot...but from a practical standpoint, I prefer to buy standard brogues so that I can use them with pants OR my kilt.

Ah, it makes sense if it's a formality issue then.


Sorry to throw your thread off track a bit Xman, but as it turns out, the ghillies might fall into the same category as white socks.

[OC Richard]

I don't care for that at all! A "dress" tartan, white hose, dirk belt peeking out from under the waistcoat, informal sporran, buckle-less ghillies, kilt pin worn too low and crookedly...

I was playing in pipe bands c1980 when the "arran knit" offwhite/natural hose became all the rage, and also c1990 when the dreaded stark white bobbletop/popcorn top piper's socks became all the rage. How white hose became standard for Evening Dress, I just don't understand. It never would have done in the old days.

When time for my marriage I opted for coloured hose, blue.



About ghillies, they show up in the 1860s in The Highlanders of Scotland, usually in tan leather, worn with outdoor dress. At that time they evidently were viewed as somewhat rustic.

By the 1920s ghillies had moved indoors, black, with nonfunctional decorative buckles affixed, and worn with Evening Dress. At this time ordinary shoes were usually worn with Outdoor Dress. (For Evening Dress, buckled ghillies never seem to have been nearly as popular as Mary Jane style buckle shoes and slip-on loafer style buckle shoes, and the military always used the latter styles for Levee dress and Mess dress, never the ghillies.) In my old Highland Dress catalogues the ghillies worn with Evening Dress always have buckles affixed, never plain.

Pipers, however, had always had a penchant for ghillies, and you see pipers wearing them both with outdoor dress and formal dress from the 1860s up to today, in the old days often with buckles affixed.

In any case the modern notion of Evening Dress = Prince Charlie + white hose + buckle-less ghillies has always struck me as a bit odd.