Another hoses question

[Dirk95]

Seems to me that most traditional kiltwearers didn't usually think in those terms, in terms of matching the kilt-colours with the hose. I know I don't, I prefer co-ordinating colours (which often involves contrast).



Preferences in Hose-colour is one of those things of fashion that changes over time, for no apparent reason.

In Victorian times tartan hose were common, and selfcoloured kilt-hose were nearly always grey, brown, or (less often) brick red.

Through much of the 20th century selfcoloured kilt-hose were usually seen in a limited number of colours such as Lovat blue, Lovat green, stone, and ecru.

Starting, what, around the 1970s ecru hose began replacing the traditional tartan hose for Evening Dress. Then in the 1990s gleaming pure-white hose became hugely popular for Evening dress.

Now the fashion has moved away from white and ecru and to anything but: black, charcoal grey, navy blue, royal blue, red, claret, even yellow and purple.

There's no right and wrong in it, it's just the vagaries of fashion.

Here are some top pipers gathered in Scotland for a formal event, as you see none are wearing white or ecru hose.



The same here, dignitaries at a Highland Games





I really like the tartan-top hose, to me they look classy. They were popular in the 1920s and they've never gone out of style.

Hi Richard, how the times a changing eh , I really like my tartan top cuff hoses I had them made for me by Henderson Highland Hoses they were great to deal with.
Dirk95
Derek.

[Crazy Dave]

When I bought my Sport Kilt, I bought to pair of white hose, along with other colors. I bought a Deluxe Natural Cable Knit Hose, and Kilt Hose - Regular in white. Even though I am in my 60's I am very athletic. I bought he Kilt Hose -Regular to wear with sneakers, which I feel that white is an appropriate color for athletics. I mostly wear the cable knit hose when I wear my cable knit sweater. They look great together. I also wear them when my other hose are unwashed, feeling that unwashed hose are more inappropriate than washed white or natural hose when dressing casual or daywear. Really, I don't sweat wearing the white/natural kilt hose, I just like the look of the colored hose better most of the time. I have no events to go to, so all my kilt wearing is casual or daywear.

Dave

[Dr Bee]

but it would be interesting to know what you think.

I was asked by my son recently while we were visiting a Highland outfitters what I thought of some ecru hose he wanted to buy - he knew I had a pair and that I never wore them - this is what I told him:

White hose are anathema.
Cream hose are not anathema - they are merely frowned upon. They can be useful if one is:
dancing on 'The White Heather Club;'
or performing with The Alexander Brothers;
or attending a wedding where the groom's party have sadly opted for ecru hose.
Beyond that, ecru hose can be worn on any occasion with the kilt if ecru hose is what one really, really likes to wear - but be sure to buy a sturdy variety that will not be mistaken for something rented.

On the grounds that he claimed to really, really like ecru hose with his (Ramsay Blue) kilt, he bought the hose - or probably I bought them for him - they were at least of a sufficiently sturdy quality.

[OC Richard]

White hose are anathema.
Cream hose, while not anathema and merely frowned upon, can be useful...

Well it's just how fashions change IMHO.

Here at the Aboyne Games in 1955 you can see all the gents in tweed, and their hose are tweedy colours: Lovat blue, Lovat green, grey, stone... there is a brief glimpse of one of the athletes in natural/ecru hose

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQB67npX8FY

And that's how things still were in the mid-1970s when I started kiltwearing.

I well remember the first time I saw a pipe band wearing the hand-knit Arran patterned natural/ecru hose, around 1980. It was Port Moody visiting from Canada. We all thought it was the coolest thing, and within a couple years all the bands were wearing them.



Here's a Canadian band wearing them, in Scotland, in 1976. They were the trendsetters!



Then around 1990 the gleaming pure white hose arrived, and if a band was still wearing ecru they looked dingy and untidy



Then as quickly as white hose became "the thing" they became "not the thing"!

And everyone scrambled to wear anything but white. Black was the new white. And grey, especially dark grey. And dark blue.

But now the older, traditional colours like the Lovats are finally returning.

[Dr Bee]

Well it's just how fashions change IMHO.

And that's how things still were in the mid-1970s when I started kiltwearing.

Then around 1990 the gleaming pure white hose arrived, and if a band was still wearing ecru they looked dingy and untidy

As for my advice to my son, I was not talking about a uniform worn by a band - it he were in a band with a uniform I'd advise him to wear whatever the uniform of the band happened to be - we were talking about what to wear with a kilt on the normal occasions on which a Scotsman might choose to wear a kilt.

When I first wore a kilt in about 1966 no one wore ecru hose - except on TV - hence my tongue-in-cheek allusions to a TV show and a show-biz act. My first adult hose were lovat blue - a colour I stuck with through many pairs over several decades, although I allow myself much more variety now. Ecru hose started to become popular in probably the late 70s and by the 90s had become almost ubiquitous - I remember in those days sticking out like a sore thumb at black-tie dinners in my refusal to wear them (and in my refusal to wear ghillie-brogues). I remember discussing this with my father and his opinion was that ecru hose belonged in show-business, on TV or perhaps in dancing - and not on the legs of merely mortal kilt-wearers like us - of course in those days because we didn't use the kilt-rental industry we had no idea of the influence that industry was having.

Anyway, fashions come and fashions go - I'm glad to say the fashion for ecru hose passed me by. When I see my son wearing his ecru hose I'll try to frown only inwardly.

[OC Richard]

I was not talking about a uniform worn by a band...we were talking about what to wear with a kilt on the normal occasions on which a Scotsman might choose to wear a kilt.

Right enough.

But the pipe band fashions are established by the big Scottish bands, run by Scots, and they go hand-in-glove with Scottish kiltwearing in general.

So at the time when the bands were all going with ecru hose so were the Kilt Hire shops and kiltwearers in general.

Ditto the pure gleaming white hose- they appeared on everyone's feet, in the Hire shops and the Pipe Bands and the Rugby supporters and all- at around the same time.

And when white hose became anathema in the Pipe Band world so did they become declassee with discerning kiltwearers in general.

Now, by the way, I am sensing in the Pipe Band world and in the Scottish kiltwearing world in general an emerging trend for earth tones and tweeds, for brown sporrans and ghillies, and so forth.

Black Argyll jackets, which have been so common for a quarter-century now, are starting to give way to brown, Lovat, and grey tweeds. Time will tell if the fashion trends as I suspect.

[Crazy Dave]

Interesting! My tendency to ignore fashion is part of why I wear a kilt, but I really do like the earthtones. I find the green and blue lovat tweed jackets to be particularly striking. They are on my wish list! I have a grey herringbone tweed jacket that I had my tailor cut down for a kilt jacket, but that color choice was mainly because I found the jacket in a thrift store that was unusually short already with high pockets, so the alterations were not radical. It also fit me in the shoulders like it was custom tailored for me. I have a muted red pair of argyle, bottle green and lovat blue hose, along with a few brown brogues (bought long before I wore a kilt) and 2 brown sporrans. I guess I was going with the trend without knowing it.

Dave

[McMurdo]

As for my advice to my son, I was not talking about a uniform worn by a band - it he were in a band with a uniform I'd advise him to wear whatever the uniform of the band happened to be - we were talking about what to wear with a kilt on the normal occasions on which a Scotsman might choose to wear a kilt.

When I first wore a kilt in about 1966 no one wore ecru hose - except on TV - hence my tongue-in-cheek allusions to a TV show and a show-biz act. My first adult hose were lovat blue - a colour I stuck with through many pairs over several decades, although I allow myself much more variety now. Ecru hose started to become popular in probably the late 70s and by the 90s had become almost ubiquitous - I remember in those days sticking out like a sore thumb at black-tie dinners in my refusal to wear them (and in my refusal to wear ghillie-brogues). I remember discussing this with my father and his opinion was that ecru hose belonged in show-business, on TV or perhaps in dancing - and not on the legs of merely mortal kilt-wearers like us - of course in those days because we didn't use the kilt-rental industry we had no idea of the influence that industry was having.

Anyway, fashions come and fashions go - I'm glad to say the fashion for ecru hose passed me by. When I see my son wearing his ecru hose I'll try to frown only inwardly.

I was born in 1966, whenever I saw my Dad in his kilt he would wear Lovat Blue or Green hose with a Lovat Blue Argyll. I think you may be onto something here that the fashions though they move slowly in the Highland wear world are somewhat generational. The first time I wore the kilt as an adult was close to 20 years ago, for my twin brothers wedding, we hired kilts and he had his made for the occasion. At any rate, the only choice in hose from the hire company was ecru. I bought them as I was told that they were correct. I did not at the time know any better.

As I have learned and grown in knowledge I never wear those hose any longer, I'm not even sure where they are, a few years ago I was given a couple of pair of ecru, hand knit hose that were knit on the Isle of Lewis, about 40 or 50 years ago. I must say these are a different animal to the cheap hire company offerings, as they were handed down and have sentimental value I wear them, however not often but the quality is evident in them and given the right outfit I see nothing wrong with them, just that they are rarely my first choice.

[Shinenotburn]

Right enough.

But the pipe band fashions are established by the big Scottish bands, run by Scots, and they go hand-in-glove with Scottish kiltwearing in general.

So at the time when the bands were all going with ecru hose so were the Kilt Hire shops and kiltwearers in general.

Ditto the pure gleaming white hose- they appeared on everyone's feet, in the Hire shops and the Pipe Bands and the Rugby supporters and all- at around the same time.

And when white hose became anathema in the Pipe Band world so did they become declassee with discerning kiltwearers in general.

Now, by the way, I am sensing in the Pipe Band world and in the Scottish kiltwearing world in general an emerging trend for earth tones and tweeds, for brown sporrans and ghillies, and so forth.

Black Argyll jackets, which have been so common for a quarter-century now, are starting to give way to brown, Lovat, and grey tweeds. Time will tell if the fashion trends as I suspect.

I remember that time in the late mid to late 60s when the pipe bands were all changing over to evening wear from military dress and day dress uniforms. One of the bands I was in at the time went from tweeds to PCs and chose the ecru hose because it was less expensive than the tartan hose one would expect to see with evening dress at that time. Do you recall talk of a tartan shortage in Scotland around that time as well? Prices did go up pretty rapidly I recall.
We all wore buckles & flaps on our shoes as only the rich guys could afford gillies back then.

[Dr Bee]

a few years ago I was given a couple of pair of ecru, hand knit hose that were knit on the Isle of Lewis, about 40 or 50 years ago. I must say these are a different animal to the cheap hire company offerings, as they were handed down and have sentimental value I wear them

Yes, I can see how being given a present of ecru hose of that kind of quality would necessitate a reappraisal of one's approach - I guess if it happened to me I'd do exactly as you have done.