Diced hose

[Thomas H]

OK is it OK then to wear dice hose with day wear as I love that look . And side note ,is it OK to wear a long hair sporran with day wear ?

[Jock Scot]

OK is it OK then to wear dice hose with day wear as I love that look . And side note ,is it OK to wear a long hair sporran with day wear ?

If that is what you want to wear then do so. However you will look, at the very least, rather theatrical.

[Ron Abbott]

If that is what you want to wear then do so. However you will look, at the very least, rather theatrical.

.........to put it mildly.

[Jock Scot]

.........to put it mildly.

British understatement my dear chap, remember the British understatement!

[Pipersson]

Here are two pages from MacKinnon's book "Tartans and Highland Dress" - a very good book in any case - where he gives a statement.
A dress occasion - which can also happen in day time - requires dress hose...simple.
Maybe not common today but correct.
(By the way he also suggests to wear the Argyll which he calls "dress jacket" with a jabot!)

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Finally to me kiltwearing is not so much about following rules but about feeling comfortable.
(but some need rules to feel comfortable...)

Tom

[Wil]

If that is what you want to wear then do so. However you will look, at the very least, rather theatrical.

Diced turn down tops I think are spot on for day wear. Diced hose (as in from knee to toe) I must disagree are not day wear hose.

[creagdhubh]

In my opinon:

Self-coloured hose, or hose with patterned tops (cuffs) look splendid with day attire. Diced/Argyll style hose look equally splendid for black or white tie affairs. However, there is certainly nothing incorrect about wearing self-coloured/hose with patterened tops for evening wear as well.

Cheers,

[Nathan]

I have diced and tartan hose and would not wear them with tweed day wear. I reserve them for the more formal end of black tie and for white tie occasions.

There have been some long and detailed threads about this.

[OC Richard]

If that is what you want to wear then do so. However you will look, at the very least, rather theatrical.

This is a critical point, though I would have worded it differently.

When someone speaks of Highland Dress as traditional, it implies that it has evolved to its present state through an unbroken lineage of antecedents from an unknown origin.

(The evolution or change wasn't at a steady pace but at what is called, to borrow a term from another field, punctuated equilibrium. After over a half-century of relative stability Highland Dress underwent a fairly rapid and thorough transformation around 1900, producing the Traditional Highland Dress we know today.)

To go back along that unbroken chain of evolutionary stages and pluck something out (say, from 1880, or 1780) and wear it today would be an example of historical, rather than traditional, dress, or as Jock is implying, a costume.

Since around 1900 it's been plain/selfcoloured hose and outdoor brogues with Day Dress. Tartan and dice hose were reserved for Evening Dress. Mixing these two modes was to be avoided. However it's easy to find photographs of men wearing diced and tartan hose with Day Dress well past the c1900 point, so the 'rule' wasn't always followed.

[Calgacus]

OK is it OK then to wear dice hose with day wear as I love that look . And side note ,is it OK to wear a long hair sporran with day wear ?

Short answer, No.

There is a member here who has been known to wear both tartan hose and hair sporran with day wear and I think he makes it work fantastically, however it is in my view an exceedingly hard thing to do well and generally best avoided. Diced hose with daywear is not a combination that works as a modern combination.