Quote Originally Posted by xman
. He just shot me down on that this week revealing that he will wear Ecru. "It's what I'm used to", was his excuse. It's his wedding (or hers really) so who can argue
I've read a few times on this board that, while wearing white hose is the equivalent of selling one's soul to the devil for a doughnut, off-white, such as cream or ivory is almost totally ok. Being a severely color blind chap myself, I never put much effort into making the distinction... if it looked like white, it was white. But I made a joke in a thread where HRH Prince Charles was standing next to a man wearing ecru looking hose, calling them white... sure enough someone came in to correct me, "Those aren't white!" I've never seen a board where the lines are drawn so broad and so deep.

I'll be wearing ecru at my wedding this year, actually. I was planning on wearing a diced option since I'm also going to be wearing a Montrose doublet, but the future wife and her mother preferred a more solid ivory color, and I, being the dutiful future husband I am, don't mind obliging.



Quote Originally Posted by xman View Post
Can it be said that White hose, as much as some here might like to oppose the idea (and I'll count myself among ye), are now not only common, but have actually become traditional, that the tradition of wearing White hose has superseded former notions? Are the Argyll and diced options becoming a merely historical option? Is anyone familiar with seeing White hose at other formal occasions, state dinner, tartan balls, Robbie Burns Day? Am I wrong in my impressions?
You bring up some good points. I think most people go to white or Ivory by default, because it's easy to work with. I'd venture to guess that a lot of kilt wearers out there don't really have an eye for tartans, how to coordinate them, and when coming from a non-tartan background, don't really grasp the finer details. I'll use myself as an example here. This is my high school yearbook photo:



That was only the 3rd time in my life I had ever worn a kilt, and had only been introduced to them about a year prior. I had no clue what was acceptable and what wasn't. If someone would have criticized me on my choice of hose at the time, I would have wondered why it mattered so much. Looking at the diced options back then, I wouldn't have been interested in any, and I wouldn't have wanted to pay for them. But, white goes with green, black, red, and all the assorted colors found in any tartan I was interested in wearing, so I picked them. I'd say your typical white hose clad person picks them from the same angle.