The Ultimate White Socks Article

[DWFII]

Those of us who tend to be traditionalists tend to "take on the chin" around here at times. [snip]

Traditions are not "dead", as some seem to imply; good traditions live on, as Jock put it.

As a traditionalist, I often feel like the odd man out at Xmarks. I respect others' right to wear what they please, but I'm a bit suspcious now of the whole "kilts-as-freedom" movement because the freedom only extends so far.

I am actually surprised that someone has had the "audacity" to up and say this outright. I often feel the same way.

I might add...just as a brain teaser...that the so-called evolution of "traditional" kilt fashion (like all fashion) takes place on a continuum. It is indeed an evolution and like the evolution that takes place in Nature, nothing that has been successful in the past is ever discarded. In my mind, "traditional" highland attire can draw upon its whole history for acceptable 'looks" so long as those looks/fashions are understood and supported by fact and not fantasy.

But evolutionary "sports" and cul-de-sacs are a fact of nature and life. And while certain practices...like wearing white hose...may enjoy great popularity now, that is no guarantee that they will ever become "viable" or contribute to the traditions and history of the kilt.

On the other hand, 50 years from now coloured and maybe even tartan hose will be considered too old fashioned and archaic.

Who knows?

[acstoon]

So, what is your stance regarding Top Hats and white socks?
Inquiring minds want to know.

[JelicoCat]

Correct me if if I am wrong but originally highlanders (wearing belted plaids) most often wore no foot wear at all, thus the term "red shanks." So to me the question is at what point does traditional start and modern begin?

[gilmore]

I am sorry to say, Jamie, you are still missing the point. Our attire may well have derived from some piece of clothing that was worn 100,200,300 years ago, frankly it does not matter. The fact is that we traditionalists wear what is STILL WORN TODAY. Perhaps what we are trying to say is ,why reinvent the wheel? Many have tried over the last umpteen centuries and have come up with more or less the same result. People have tried new ideas with the wheel and kilt attire,minor improvements have been made but on the whole we are where we started. Some will continue to carry on pressing at the bounderies and that is fine by me.

I hope I have not ever told anyone what they must wear,I have advised and when asked I have given a considered opinion, even if its not, sometimes, really what people want to hear. I do, however, have my likes and dislikes as does everyone else.

Alan is dead right on one point, though, and whatever any of us may think about the various forms of kilt attire, it is hardly an earth shatteringly important subject, when all said and done. Is it?

We Americans are a nation of immigrants with not so much of a (stabilizing/stifling, as you choose) culture and its artifacts as others. Americans seem to feel the need to re-invent themselves, not seeing our own culture as authentic as others, not enough so to rely on it in which to search for an identity. So, many do this by celebrating their "freedom," but don't quite have the creativity to invent something totally unique as an identity, a project that becomes increasingly harder and harder as more and more identities are appropriated by others. So, what does one do in this case? One appropriates an identity---or at least the artifacts (like kilts and hose)that are signs of it---from a different culture altogether, and the creative role that we can play is reduced to merely using these artifacts in unconventional ways. We don't even need to understand the significance of these artifacts within the context in which we find them. We give them meaning by interpreting them through our own subjective projections to satisfy our own agendas.

So, teens and other young men unsure of their masculine identity sometimes wear kilts and highland clothing as a signifier of wild, undisciplined medieval aggression, not knowing that most people from agrarian cultures more hierarchical than their own would never behave in they ways that they fantasize they do.

Or use Korean funeral chairs as ottomans. Or Buddhist statues, thought to be holy by some, as doorstops, etc.

[McMurdo]

Correct me if if I am wrong but originally highlanders (wearing belted plaids) most often wore no foot wear at all, thus the term "red shanks." So to me the question is at what point does traditional start and modern begin?

Mod Hat Off


So if I follow your logic then it's safe to say that if you are traditionalist you would not be on a computer, surely you should be in a stone house with a thatched roof if you truly are a traditionalist. Correct? Is that where you think a traditionalist wants to live? Of course not, it is about as laughable as not wearing shoes. We are here on an Internet forum, I dare say that in this day in age one can still hold to traditions and still live in the modern world. I find the argument that tradition should go back so far as do away with a comfort as basic as shoes and socks completely ridiculous, asinine in fact. Next you'll be saying that the traditionalist should forgo his 8 yard and 4 yard kilts for the belted plaid everyday and he should only eat what he kills himself.

Much of what we today call "Traditional Highland Attire" has come to us after the '45 and after the act of proscription of 1747 was repealed in 1782. One large factor though had to due with the resurgence in popularity that Highland Dress enjoyed due to Queen Victoria's fondness of the Scots dress and her first visit with Prince Albert in 1842. Quite a bit of what a traditionalist wears and enjoys was I dare say started then, the Diced and Argyll hose, the Buckle Brogues etc. can all be traced at least that far and perhaps further. However this is only part of the story, if it were not for the Scottish Regiments during the Proscription than much of Highland attire would be lost, quite a bit of formal kilt attire has it's base in the military.

[Bigkahuna]

This is some crazy discussion! I work in a hospital and we ALL wear white socks.........well except for that cute Nurse in Peds with the fuzzy bunny socks. But for Pete sakes guys, if you have any fashion sense then wear what is appropriate to the time and place. Now stop it and go have a Whiskey!

[JelicoCat]

The point of my post parallels yours. I value tradition but also live in the here and now. All things in any society evolve and change. IMHO i don't think that getting worked up over hose, hats, or sporrans is a good use of effort of karma. Terms such as "traditional" are relative terms. That is my point. nothing more.

[Brother Falldown]

Ahhh....,

Now we hear the voice of Freedom!

I'll wear white socks with pants, with a kilt, with whatever I damn well feel like.

[turpin]

[acstoon]

beat this, I dare ya:


Sorry, can't see his hose color.