style question - tartan flashes, solid flashes or no flashes?

[Pour1Malt]

weel... it works fur Hamish tae...

[Colin]

Personally when I am wearing my hose up, I now base my flashes on matching the tartan. My first pair of flashes were solid balck and worked ok, but the red ones were better and than the MacKenzie and the Watson tartan flashes (depending which kilt of course) just add to the whole outfit.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

I'm going to disagree with the others in this thread and say that I always prefer solid flashes to tartan.

The reason for this is because the original garters were long woven bands, and not cut from tartan cloth. They would have been a solid color.

See the garters shown at the bottom of this page:
http://www.almostunwearoutable.com/system/index.html

Theses were wrapped under the knee and tied into a knot. The flashes on our modern elastic garters are meant to emulate the ends of the tied knot of the old style garters. For this reason, solid color flashes are actually the more traditional choice.

I also think that a simple solid color adds a bit of flash to the outfit without being over the top. I prefer to keep things simple whenever possible.

It's not that tartan flashes don't look nice - they do - but I still prefer solid colors for both historical reasons and for reasons of style.
Aye,
Matt

[Hamish]

weel... it works fur Hamish tae...

Many thanks for the acknowledgement, Robertson!

With hose worn rolled/folded/scrunched down, for me, it is obviously a case of no flashes. I have seen kilted guys wearing flashes with hose worn in that fashion, but it just looks plain slovenly.

With tartan and traditionally-styled plain kilts, and with the hose pulled up, I do wear flashes. Sometimes in tartan to match the kilt, and sometimes in a plain colour either in a shade to compliment the tartan, or in a shade to match the plain kilt. (eg: plain maroon TFCK kilt with plain maroon flashes). The decision as to whether it's to be tartan or plain flashes with a tartan kilt is made purely on a whim, or my mood, at the time of dressing!

With Utilikilts, and other contemporary non-traditional-styled kilts, and with the hose pulled up, I seldom if ever wear flashes.

As we all know, there are no rules. The above represents my own guidelines, but even guidelines can be bent, or even broken, from time to time!

[Robin]

I always wear flashes, plain or tartan (matching the kilt of course) when the hose are "up".

I think flashes look very nice...even when dressed casual.
I'm not a big fan of the stiff type...they don't move and look unnatural.

I'm very fond of the "double" Lochcarron flashes....nice colours and they move when I move or because of the wind.

The House of Edgar has a huge range also...including some beautiful muted colours. Shockingly expensive though