Best complementary hose colors for predominantly red & green kilts?

[Really a McQueen]

Seeing as one of my tartans (the MacQueen) is mostly red, and another (MacKenzie Modern) is heavy on the green perhaps I can weigh in on this topic. Properly selected, reds and greens can compliment each other.

Likewise, you can use variants of the lesser colors of a tartan with it. For example, yesterday I attended the Elk Mountain Highland Games and May Day Festival. I wore my MacKenzie Modern kilt, pairing it with a slate blue shirt under a navy blue pullover crew neck sweater (jumper). I selected a pair of wine colored hose and black, closed toe hiking sandals (which had some red highlights). The look worked when taken as a whole. As an alternative based on the same tartan, I could have worn a tan shirt, a green jumper and bison or mustard hose with tan sandals.

[Randy McIntosh]

I wear the modern Hunting and with that any colour hose I put my hand on in my drawer...Navy Blue, Grey, Bright red, lovat green, lovat blue, etc...yes even the dreaded white.

[Taskr]

I go to the shop in my kilt, in whichever shirt, jacket, whatever chosen that day and start placing hose against it in a mirror view. My credit card winches in anticipation.

[Coleman January]

If I loaded the picture correctly, I'd wear these. I have them and with a gorgeously brilliant red like your tartan, I would wear a softly muted green. If I screwed up the pic, it's House of Cheviot's ancient green.

[lschwartz]

One of the things I try to point out to newbies with this same sort of question is this -

When you think that just because you put a kilt on, should not necessarily mean that everything in your outfit must be based on the color of the kilt.

This would mean that you are limiting your choices of color to one part of the entire color spectrum.

The kilt is very capable of standing on its own. It is quite possible, and often preferable, to build a color coordinated outfit without matching the colors of the kilt.

There are so many options for good looking colors and good looking outfits that it would be a shame to limit your thinking to just one or two colors.

Let the kilt stand on its own.

If you think of a Scottish wedding, everyone will be in the same hose, shirt, coat & tie, yet all with their own kilt. And it works!

Experiment, look in a mirror and see what looks good or what looks bad based on the whole outfit. You may surprise yourself with the things already in your closet.

To possibly paraphrase what Steve said, and hopefully not get it all bass-ackwards, think about your kilt the same way you think about the necktie you wear with a suit or a jacket and slacks. The top and bottom of the suit or jacket/pants should be in the same color pallete so they work together; black/gray/white, navy blue/medium blue/light blue, brown/tan/cream, and so on. The necktie adds a splash of color. You could even think of the suit as the frame for the necktie.

Apply the same thinking to your jacket/shirt/waistcoat above the kilt and the hose below the kilt. Keep it all in the same color pallete, whether it complements the colors in the tartan or not and it will work. Your kilt will be the splash of color just like the tie, and what you wear above and below it will be its frame. Here are some examples to illustrate this...

highland1_2326178k.jpg

0Q4mGs9.jpg



Of course, you can also use the colors in the kilt as your color pallete and use them if you want.
02840f936093592e4fd96d05b2667363--wedding-men-celtic-wedding.jpg

Picking the predominant color in the tartan for your pallete works as well.
KiltedCarver3.jpg

f0218b1912db4cb6647417da2d865a71--utility-kilt-kilts.jpg

Steve, if that wasn't what you were saying please feel free to correct my interpretation.

Larry

[The Wizard of BC]

Yea, that pretty well covers it. The idea is that if you think that you must use the colors from your kilt you are limiting yourself.

However, you probably have many different colors of shirts. Why not different colored hose?

Some look at it from an artist view. If all the colors are taken from the kilt, the kilt sort of fades into the background of the outfit. Let the Tartan shine by building the colors of the whole outfit and let the Tartan stand proud.

And there is always the example of the Scottish wedding. All the guys will have the same jacket, shirt, tie, hose and shoes - But all their own Tartan...And it works.

So don't get to serious or set into the thinking that you build colors around the kilt. Have fun, be adventurous, enjoy the Tartan.

[OC Richard]

Highland Dress is of course different from "Saxon" dress, the wearing of ordinary suits, yet the same colour principles apply.

Here's an ordinary suit:



Now imagine if somebody had a kilt the colour of that suit and they asked for advice and people said the rest of the outfit should match the kilt.

How would it look if that fellow did that with his suit? Wore a shirt and tie the same brown? It would be dreadfully boring.

The difference with Highland Dress is the greater number of colour opportunities. The principle of co-ordinating rather than matching is the same. Does his shirt have the slightest trace of brown in it? Does his tie have a trace of the suit-colour, a trace of the shirt-colour? Not at all. The suit, shirt, and tie are completely different and do not match each other in any way. Yet they co-ordinate. (I could mention that the suit is a warm colour, the shirt and tie cool colours, which is critical to them co-ordinating.)

Extend that out to kilt-jacket, hose, and flashes and Bob's your Uncle.

[David Dubh]

I know we are talking civilian highland wear but if you look at the Scottish regiments, particularly the black watch, you will note that their dress uniform is scarlet tunics with red and white or red and black diced hose. There is no red in the kilt at all. I wear hose depending on the situation for day wear usually lovat or muted colours brighter or darker colours for evening wear. Both my Kilts are in muted colours.