Personal Rules when Wearing Hose

[Galb]

I'm curious, what "personal rules" people here have in regards to hose and the color they choose. For instance, do you only wear cream hose when you dress up nice? Or do you go with colored hose? When wearing colored hose, do you prefer to match the color of the hose to your shirt or kilt or does it not matter to you?

Keep in mind, this is not a "what SHOULD you do" thread, but more of a "What is your personal preference" thread.


I'll start since I am bringing it up. I only have one pair of hose, which I have come to find out is piper's hose. I always wondered why I had to fold it down, and then back up and why the design was different on the folds....

Anyways, if I had colored hose, I would probably want to match the hose with whatever color shirt I was wearing.

[ardchoille]

My personal preference:

When I wear colored hose, I match the hose color to the main color in my kilt. Then I match hose flashes to the color of a small stripe in the kilt.

When I wear cream colored hose, I match the hose flashes to the main color in my kilt.

I match shirts to any color in the kilt.

This works for me and seems to always look good.

By the way, Rocky is having a sale of hose and flashes at USA Kilts right now.

[Ozman1944]

I tend to match hose with shirt.

[davedove]

I tend to match hose with shirt.

That's my basic principle, except I match the hose to the major color worn on the torso, which is often the jacket.

For instance, for formal wear I like black hose, to match the black jacket.

For more casual wear, I match the hose to the shirt, and try to have both match a minor color in the tartan of the kilt. Note that this doesn't have to be an exact match, just close.

I like the way that this "frames" the kilt.

[Cawdorian]

I don't really have any hard and fast rules on hose color, I have cream, navy blue, lovat green, oatmeal and red hose. The cream hose don't get worn very often. Oatmeal hose goes very nicely with a kilt and a khaki shirt, the navy blue with the Campbell of Cawdor kilt, the red hose match one of the small stripes in this kilt. The lovat green hose go very nicely with the ancient green color in the Ancient Lamont kilt. I do try to match the color of my tie with the hose at times.

At the formal affairs I attend you see about a 50/50 split between cream hose and the darker color hose, IMHO darker color hose matching one of the predominant colors in your kilt add to the dressy look of formal wear. Even the red hose look good with formal wear.

Hose color is a matter of personal choice, there are many color combinations that will work. If you had to match your shirt color you would never get a chance to wear many of the darker color hose with formal wear. Hose colors and ties give you the flexibility to change and vary the looks of your outfit.

[Nighthawk]

Personally, I think white/cream hose look cheap. Just my personal opinion. Don't get mad at me- I was asked. So I don't ever wear white. I match the socks to the kilt, and I match the shirt to the kilt. Everything in essence matches the kilt.

[ForresterModern]

Usually wear the matching tartan flashes with my kilt hosem since I got them free and they always look good.

Usually try to match a single prominent if not dominant color in the kilt with both my shirt and hose, but I feel free to default to white for one or the other but almost never for both, unless I am dressed formally, then white and white I think looks great. I know the rabble generally wears cream/natural color hose for dress events but it just does not appear snazzy enough for me. If there is ANY black in your kilt black shirt black hose looks dashing and suave at the same time and really sets off the colors of your kilt. SAme but to a lesser degree with grey-grey, unless your kilt has a dominant grey to it.

One man's O.

[Nervous Jock]

never wear white/cream except in black tie

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

never wear white/cream except in black tie

Never wear white/creme... Full Stop... Unless...

you want people to think you've rented your outfit, you are a member of a pipe band and you are in uniform, or you have a tropical foot disease.

[Bugbear]

Purple! Bright Red! Yellow! Orange!!

Those are the colors I stay away from because they don't look good on me. Right now I only have cream hose, but I plan to get brown hose and gray hose soon. I try to go easy on the green.

I aim to make the whole outfit compatible, so I would never, never wear brown hose with a black jacket or shirt. Same for gray jacket or shirt, and same for not wearing black or gray hose with brown jacket. Tan, kakhi, blue, green, cream, and white are safety colors for me.

I think white shirts with white/cream hose look quite nice with the black formal jackets, but understand it might not be the best thing to do.
* And now that I think about it, (because this is all in my mind anyway) Black hose with a black formal jacket and agreeable tartan would look very good together. Solid black kilt with black jacket might need the dark gray hose, though...

Just color coordinate everything!!