Familiarity Breeds Contempt

**thescot** · 26th March 11, 10:51 AM

White hose may be a fairly new innovation for the reasons stated--easy to match for renters--but they've at least been around fince the 60s. Scotty Thompson even suggested they were fine for dressy occassions in So You're Going to Wear the Kilt. I have a pair of hand knit I ordered when I first began wearing kilts based on is recommendations.

I don't wear them anymore. I just happen to like the tartan hose better.

I don't think them an abomination, not particularly ugly, nor do they look offinsive to me. I wouldn't worry much about someone's sock color; it's really a small thing. White socks always make one look like either a rube or an avante garde trend setter. I don't like them, either, but sartorial tastes--especially one's choice of sock color--doesn't have a lot of impact on life. Besides, I doubt anyone besides xman will give it a thought.

But you should still give the guy some lovat green hose.

**auld argonian** · 26th March 11, 11:04 AM

...maybe find a compromise in Stone or another one of the nice greys...

http://www.hendersongroupltd.com/car...idProduct=2716

Best

AA

...so many of our guys talk about their big calves and white or ecru just seem to make them look bigger...I've got the opposite problem and I still don't wear the white...

**Fitzy** · 27th March 11, 06:33 AM

To throw my 2 cents in, having been in the same position,... I finally had to realize that no matter what I thought of my Brother's view of wedding attire,...

It was his day, his way, that only mattered.

When my then widower brother was getting re-married, he asked me to be his best man. Of course I was proud to say yes, not knowing what was coming.

Both having a love of the water and sailing, the couple decided to hold the wedding ceremony on the beach at their yatch club. Having grown up on the water front I thought that a great idea, ..... until,...

My Brother had found a shop that rented tux,... with matching shorts. He and I were to row ashore (read now add being bare foot) and join the ceremony at the shore line....where everyone else was in conventional wedding attire.

I've worn tux in so many friend's weddings that I swore I'd not with my own - which I didn't. Instead, I had a blue jeans and embroidered shirts hippy wedding not uncommon in the mid 70's (the girls wore apliqued denum skirts). So, unconventional attire in a wedding party was not something I was against.

However, 20 years later, being alot wider, the pictures I was getting of what we'd look like in Tux with shorts didn't set well with me.

After some time reflecting, I realized that no matter what my views were, all that realy mattered was that it was my brother's day, and as best man it was my job was to make his day great in anyway I could. So, as they say, I took one for the team, satisfied that it made my brother happy.

Plus, it wouldn't be my wedding pictures I'd be looking back on and seeing myself as the world's stubbiest Penquin, wishing the tide would come in and hide the fact I was wearing a tux with shorts, no socks or shoes.

The pay back will be that if I re-marry, he'll be asked to be my best man, and wear a kilt. Considering his strong views about kilt wearing, it will be a true test of brotherly love !!!

Paul

**longhuntr74** · 26th March 11, 12:55 PM

You know why most guys like white hose...they go with EVERYTHING. It doesn't take any skill to pick a color.

This phenomenon is not unique to just kilts, however. I was reading an article on "The Art of Manliness" the other day regarding socks. The article can be found here. Overall, it is a good article. Any guy that has any sort of fashion sense knows that it is now quite acceptable to wear other than white gym socks with jeans and other than black or navy blue socks with dress pants. I thought that most men on this site would be more progressive when it comes to style, but what struck me in reading the posts at the bottom of the article was that most guys are still stuck in the gym sock, black dress sock world.

Why not spice things up with some color? The reason? Most men have a hard enough time picking a shirt that complements a pair of pants...I am frequently ashamed of the male population.

**Calico** · 26th March 11, 01:48 PM

Longhuntr74, it isn't always a lack of fashion sense. It is practicality.

Just as rental outfits offer only white because they don't need to worry about carrying multiple products, I only want black socks in my drawer (this does not apply to kilt hose) for many practical reasons.

I sort socks at night and put put them on in the dark. If I have black and navy, they often get mixed up and I end up looking stupid at work. (being under p@nts only I notice, but I still feel stupid).

Then my wife and I took up dancing. The thick socks I prefer weren't working, so she bought me a bunch of thin socks of various lengths. I hate having to go through my drawer to figure out not only color, but match sock length and thickness!

I like the "traditional" male approach. 5 suits, identical, 1 for each working day of the week. 5 dress shirts, identical style, in white or light blue. Identical socks, all black. Never any worry about what to wear, what to select, mismatches or anything. Dressing is quick and easy.

Leave fashion for women.

**Doc Canary** · 26th March 11, 11:18 AM

I understand and applaud the support of tradition.
There is also the option of choice and personal taste. Lets agree to disagree that for a lot of us, our dress style is not dictated by tradition. Tradition in the strictest sense does not work for sum of us.
In the US, the culture views us as non traditionalist because choose to wear a kilt.

**SlackerDrummer** · 26th March 11, 12:08 PM

I have been to several formal "Scottish" events in the last fifteen years, in North Carolina, Washington DC, and Kentucky. I would say that well more than 95% of those in attendance were in white kilt hose. Whether it is traditional or not is irrelevant, it is the norm (at least in the Southeastern United States). It would be great if it were to change, but don't expect it to happen overnight.

**Teufel Hunden** · 26th March 11, 12:13 PM

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.

Originally Posted by xman

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.