Hose Height / How much knee?

[Lon Scot Reg Secretary]

I like mine a tad shorter. I'd estimate 2 - 3 fingers below the hinge bone on the outside.

Macman,

In my Regiment we call the 'hinge bone' the 'Highland bone'! Once found, we then measure three fingers down to the top of the hose.

Nice photograph BTW.

[OC Richard]

I also wonder if it's because someone not used to kilt wearing feels exposed and so consciously or subconsciously pulls their hose up high and lowers the kilt.

Maybe they are unused to the relatively high position of the waist, and so wear it lower than intended by the maker.

Yes I think you're bang-on with both observations.

One wouldn't think so, especially while watching The Red Carpet arrivals at a Hollywood event, but an old puritanical element is alive and well somewhere down deep in the American psyche, especially in certain regions and among certain groups. An American who thinks nothing about wearing shorts and sandals and exposing most of his legs, well, when you put a kilt on him he suddenly becomes very modest!

And most Americans just can't get it into their heads that a kilt is not a pair of jeans. Heck, we've even invented Utility Kilts in order to cater to this desire to have kilts be like jeans! And traditional kilts? Well we'll tell the kiltmaker to make them shorter than they ought to be and wear them lower than they ought to be and have the kiltmaker put wide belt loops on them so we can wear belts to hold them up! (Of course if we wore them properly and had them made properly we wouldn't need belts.)

Rant over.

[McRoy]

I've always followed what I was taught in the military, two fingers below the knee bone you can feel to the side just under the kneecap. IMHO the hose pulled up to the hem of the kilt looks a tad retarded.

[Father Bill]

I've always followed what I was taught in the military, two fingers below the knee bone you can feel to the side just under the kneecap. IMHO the hose pulled up to the hem of the kilt looks a tad retarded.

As a former teacher, please: the word "retarded" is not the general word for bad things, and is rather offensive in general context.

[OC Richard]

Interestingly this article which talks about the Inverness Kilt Society discusses this very thing, hose height.

In The Graphic, 9 August 1913, there is an article about the kilt (Is the Kilt in Danger?) wherein is mentioned

The Inverness Kilt Society, aided by Lord Lovat, Lord Seafield, The MacKintosh, and Lochiel, have just drawn up rules for the correct wearing of the Highland costume.

...Hose are to be worn one inch higher than the centre of the calf.

...There should be about the width of a hand between the top of the hose and the bottom of the kilt.

The main point of the article is that the kilt is losing popularity in the Highland battalions due to having too much cloth, but mainly because of the ancillary things such as spats, hosetops, and the hair sporran. The article calls for the introduction into the army of long plain hose and leather sporrans (both of which were done a year later).

Here it is



Note that all four of the hose illustrations show hose being worn higher than the traditional Army height. (Well, the Seaforth Highlander, 2nd from left, is very close.) When I wear my diced hosetops at the necessary height (necessary to make the correct number of diamonds appear) and my kilt around the top of the kneecap in the old way, the distance between the edge of the kilt and the top of the hose is around TWO hand-widths.

Note in the centre photo, showing an army kilt being worn, how amazingly high the rise of the kilt is.

[creagdhubh]

Very interesting, Richard. Thanks for sharing.

[kiltedtom]

Ok. It almost seems like there is a rule for everything. My opinion, and only my opinion, is that however you want to wear your garments: kilts, hose, etc. included, and whatever makes you feel happy with yourself is the rule you should follow. Even kilts change with fashions and generations. Do not limit yourself to any specified guidelines, unless, of course, you like them.

Have a good day everyone.

Tom

[Jock Scot]

Kiltedtom.

The person(OP) that started this thread ASKED for advice on hose height. Now, like many things in this world there is the right way and the wrong way to do things and actual rules do not exist, apart from military regulations that do not apply to civilians, as in this case. Should you decide to ignore the asked for advice and plough your own furrow, then no one will stop you and you certainly will not be put up against the wall and shot. Each to their own laddie and what you decide to do with your kilt attire is entirely your own choice.

[Grizzly]

I agree with Jock, yes there is an accepted norm, and I know what it is. Do I get the tape measure out every time I put my hose on ? No I don't. In time you will know where you like to wear your hose. I have big calves 17 1/2 inches as a consequence I have to wear mine slightly higher otherwise my garters won't tie as I would like. Do I worry about that? Not a jot! Wear them slightly lower than football socks and leave a gap twixt the bottom of the kilt and the top of the hose. You won't be far out.

[kiltedtom]

Jock, I agree that the original post was for advice. But it sure seemed that the more posts that were made, the less friendly some of fhe advice seemed to be. Between military regulations and historical pictures, there seemed, in my opinion again, too muchy emphasis on the correct and accepted way to do things. Get enough old painints and you will still find variations in hight of hose and length of kilts. So, unless a person is in the military, which dictates fashions or in a band or other group that looks for uniformity, a person should simply find what is comortable. That is the best advice and what I intended.

I love the pic put in by Chas. One with "official height." One with hose down around his ankles, and one without hose at all. They all work.