If You Could Have Just One Pair Of Hose

[ShaunMaxwell]

If I could only have one pair, I'd probably go with an ancient green, but really, I'd want a second pair of bottle green hose for my modern colors tartan. The ancient green hose work for the ancient and hunting versions of my tartan. I'm partial to the handknit hose Rocky sells at USA Kilts for the bottle green, and Lewis hose for the ancient green.

[AFS1970]

I think the Charcoal suggestion is the best so far. My current go to hose are a lighter grey, but I am not sure they would do for formal wear. For quite a few years my only pair were off white, but I liked them more for the pattern and the way they were knit than for the color.

I know that I do want some checkerboard topped hose, and eventually a pair of diced hose, but the ones that look nicest to me would probably be seen as too matchy-matchy by most here, so that goes back to the who are we wearing our hose for question.

[Father Bill]

Bison.

[Alan H]

Honestly, here in California, I would go with white. I'm dead serious.

NOBODY here cares at all about the ongoing hatred on this forum, for white hose. In fact, people half expect white hose. Now, you may hate that. You may rail to the skies and curse the living and the dead, but I'm sorry, mate....nobody outside this forum in the State of California really much cares what you think. White hose goes with everything and it's half-expected by the general population. I'd get him a decent pair of white hose. The next choice would be a heather grey.

Note that there's been no mention of the tartan in the budget kilt. My REAL first choice would be to match one of the colors in the kilt. Barring that...white. Second choice, barring that, light grey. IN CALIFORNIA.

Note that I recall this topic coming up years upon years ago, and The Hamish Himself suggested "oatmeal". Now if *I* could have only one color of hose....that's a different question from "How about my buddy here, who's got a really nice kilt that he got for cheap and I'm not going to tell you what color it is. Yeah, what color of hose should HE wear, if he could have only one?.."

Answer for ME: light gray or oatmeal.......or.....off-white. Not bright pipers-hose white, but a "natural" white/cream. Any of those would be fine.

[OC Richard]

Though I only have four kilts they represent a variety of colours (modern red, muted red, Isle of Skye) and the hose which look the best with all the kilts are Royal Blue.

Very true that charcoal, mid-grey, black, and white hose, being colourless, won't clash with anything. Of those choices I think charcoal is the most handsome.

Also very good is Jock's bottle green, which will go equally well with blue/green tartans and red tartans.

Lovat hose likewise will go with just about any tartan very well, but to my eye are Day-specific, as would be khaki hose.

Anyhow for me it would come down to charcoal or royal blue, my love of colour making me choose the latter if I only could have one.

[tpa]

This one is easy, blue lovat. With the exception of the fawn ones for a handfull of formal wear occasions including my wedding, some white ones which I acquired I know not how, never wore and have now dyed, I have only worn lovat blue for around 60 years. Now, with full time wear I have a slightly wider selection but still prefer my lovat ones, especially with my Anderson kilts.

Oh, and I do have some red ones, they were actually school socks for day and sports wear, but I wore them for a Red Hot Chilli Pipers concert!

[Spartan Tartan]

If I could only have one pair, I'd probably go with claret or deep burgundy. My kilt is green/blue based.

I would do this as well. My kilt is green/blue based as well and I like the deep red for a contrast. Bright red can work, but for a newbie with only ONE pair, this is how I would do it (assuming it in fact looks nice with the kilt and doesn't in some way clash with the other colours).

[Spartan Tartan]

Perhaps a different spin on white hose. Nevermind the hire-shop look, the ease of matching and the clean general appearance (fancy hose or otherwise), I would consider the ability to keep them looking clean. A darker hue or a rich colour would ultimately maintain its "true" colour over many more wearings. I would be concerned that (as is the case with my white running socks) that after a few/several wearing there would be signs of wear that ultimately took away from the clean look of the white.

For what it's worth (yes, I get that is not much at all), I imagine that they would be worn more frequently and therefore have signs of wear. If you polish your shoes, perhaps the polish will creep up onto the ankle. If you wear them with boots to go on a hike, perhaps the dirt and dust will soil/stain the exposed sections. Maybe your hands will leave discolorations on the cuff as you adjust them or remove/replace your sgian... For all these reasons, I would choose a color that was not so pure and could "conceal" the more casual indications of wear over a longer period of time.

Just another way of thinking about the colour choice.

[Kanati]

I gravitate towards the darker colors myself. I suggest that you not stop with one pair.

After a three day Highlands Games event in Texas, color may not matter much.

[OC Richard]

Our pipe band played at three different Games in Scotland back in 2007, at the height of the White Hose Era, when nearly all of the 230 bands at The Worlds wore them.

At two of the three Games it rained continuously all day, the ground turned into a muddy quagmire, and all those thousands of white hose were splattered with dark mud. Repeated washings later and you could still see faint discolouring.

Nowadays nearly all the bands wear black hose, much better for the Scottish conditions!