Favorite flashes / garter ties

[imbrius]

I'm lucky enough to have a wife that doesn't mind making custom flashes for me any time I want them. I currently have modern green, red, and black. Thinking of another color.

What are everyone's favorite flashes and/or garter ties (colors / patterns / etc.)? Thanks!

[ShaunMaxwell]

Red, followed by Ancient Red (garter ties).

I find that no matter what kilt I wear, or what combination of hose, shirt, tie or jacket/waistcoat, red is always the way to go.

Cheers,

SM

[Tobus]

My thinking is the same as Shaun's. I put a lot of thought (and money, LOL) into my kilt wardrobe, with plenty of variations on every piece of it. But when it comes to garter ties, I virtually always wear red. It's the one piece of my outfit that I really don't feel any need to change.

But if I were ever to choose another colour for some reason, I think I'd go with a gold, yellow, or mustard.

[Karl R]

What are everyone's favorite flashes and/or garter ties (colors / patterns / etc.)?

I strongly prefer garter ties over flashes, but I tend to coordinate the color with the rest of the outfit, while contrasting with the kilt hose. Therefore, no favorite colors ... other than liking it well enough to buy it in the first place.

[Highland Logan]

My thinking is the same as Shaun's. I put a lot of thought (and money, LOL) into my kilt wardrobe, with plenty of variations on every piece of it. But when it comes to garter ties, I virtually always wear red. It's the one piece of my outfit that I really don't feel any need to change.

But if I were ever to choose another colour for some reason, I think I'd go with a gold, yellow, or mustard.

I agree with this... I've only worn red... if I did pick another, it would yellow.

Frank

[OC Richard]

Style and colour being independent of each other, I'll address them separately.

Style: For me it's dependent on what my outfit is about.

For my military piper's outfit I use traditional flashes which are woven to the correct width of herringbone worsted wool tape.

Here's a vintage military garter with flash showing the traditional wool tape:



Me wearing my military style flashes



These traditional flashes are still widely available, but put on modern elastic garters.

The potential problem with these is that the ends are cut in an inverted V, and not being hemmed they tend to fray over the years.

For my ordinary civilian Highland outfits I often wear Shooting Socks garters. These end in fringe, obviating the issue of fraying. The handy thing is that they come in sets with a pair of elastic garters and flashes in various colours, making it cheap and easy to co-ordinate outfits.



Me wearing shooting sock flashes, claret with blue hose (neither claret nor blue occurs in the tartan)



The style I don't care for, because it doesn't look traditional, are flashes cut to shape and hemmed out of woven cloth fabric. Garters and flashes AFAIK have always been made out of tape or ribbon specially manufactured to the correct width.

Colour:

I tend to use a warm/cool contrast between my hose and garters. For those not aware, using warm/cool contrast is extremely common in design, for example flags (in red/white/blue flags blue is cool, red is warm) and tartan (all the green & red tartans) and so forth.

So I'll wear claret hose with green or blue flashes, blue hose with claret flashes, etc.

[Karl R]

I tend to use a warm/cool contrast between my hose and garters.

It's a good way to get contrast. Alternatively, I'll sometimes go with a light/dark contrast. Two or three weeks ago I wore my red kilt hose with my black garter ties, which stood out nicely.

But it's particularly nice when I can pull off a light/dark and warm/cool contrast simultaneously.

[Bad Monkey]

usually I don't wear flashes. On the odd occasion I do, I'll wear black or red flashes I made up from wool twill tape to the Seaforth Highlanders "other ranks" pattern. I was up in B.C. playing a couple gigs and a bud of our fiddle player hung out afterwards for the locked door session. He had on his old Seaforth kilt and I noticed he had on the old school military flashes. I looked around and couldn't find any similar that I liked (50+bucks for flashes I don't like) so I picked up some worsted wool twill tape and knocked out a pair in black. I liked em enough to pick up red tape as well. As soon as I get some down time I'll stitch up a red pair and post some pics on how I made them.

Oh yeah, Bob said the ratty ends to the flashes are to be desired, shows you've got bags of time in and have lots of salt around the edges

[Tarheel]

I have two sets of flashes. Red, that I made, and (like the ties shown by OC Richard) a grey set. These fit every combination I own.

[KnittedReenactor]

I received a set of matching flashes when I ordered my kilt. Outside of trying them on out of the box, I have never worn them.
If I am wearing kilt hose, I am using the hand knit garter ties I made myself. Cranberry Red. I haven't thought too much about alternate colors yet.