Hose Height / How much knee?

[OC Richard]

Taking the long view of things, this is something that's been fairly stable over the centuries until rather recently, when people (especially Americans, it seems to me) started to pull their socks up right to the kneecap.

Here you can see the 'classic' height, here in the late 18th century, in this original portrait done from life



Yes there's more knee showing, with the kilt at (or very slightly above) the top of the kneecap.

As in so many things the Army does things the old way. Here you can see plenty of knee (slightly exaggerated by the camera angle) with the kilts at the top of the kneecap and the hose at the lower, traditional height.

In the army, with diced hosetops worn with spats, the height is dictated by how many diamonds the particular battalion has showing, the edge of a diamond coming precisely to meet the spats (well, the Gordons Pipe Major has one hosetop a bit high, and the Black Watch Pipe Major, a very tall man, has both his a tad high).



So what about the civilian world? The 56 kilted men in The Highlanders Of Scotland are fairly consistent in their hose height; photographs from the same period show the same thing. (Calgacus, above, appears to wear his kilt and hose quite like this.)



Nowadays in Pipe Bands one often sees kilts worn absurdly low, often accompanied by the pulling of the socks very high. Note that the waistcoat isn't long enough to compensate for the kilt being worn a few inches lower than intended by the maker



Here you might notice that the pipers tend to have a bit of knee showing, some of the drummers none at all



And since people are posting some selfies, Yours Truly piping at Fort MacArthur last weekend, in Great War period Warm Weather Service Dress, with a Lieutenant of the Austro-Hungarian Imperial Army (my buddy Larry, a fine piper himself). I have plenty of knee showing in the old way (sorry for my non-authentic sunglasses!) (The eagle-eyed might spot the quad .50s in the background.)