Dress Kilt Hose

[OC Richard]

It was always the accepted thing to wear tartan hose with a kilt.

It depends on what you mean by "tartan". If you mean hose knit in such a way to imitate or replicate the tartan of the kilt, hose like that don't become popular until the middle of the 19th century.

I can't think of, offhand, a single early portrait that shows such... though this 1700 portrait shows a complex tartan pattern, it doesn't seem to be intended to match the kilt




Most of the early portraits show a red & white pattern, such as here in 1714:



mid-18th century:



around 1800:



Here appear to be red & black hose, once again not intended to match the kilt, c1840



This is my favourite hose & kilt combination of all time! Nearly all the men in The Highlanders of Scotland have matching tartan hose, mostly-matching diced hose, or plain grey or brown hose.

But this guy has selected tartan hose in a tartan that coordinates with his kilt in a brilliant way

[Phil]

Thanks for your lavishly illustrated piece, OCRichard, but when I said "always" I was referring to my lifetime and a little before rather than the 19th century and before. I have no personal experience going back that far although it sometimes feels that way.