How to wear bright colored hose?

[Steve Ashton]

Don't you? I wear black socks with my business pants, black socks if I was to wear dress suit+tie, white socks when I play tennis. So if you were to compare the two, should certain colors be used for certain events?

Just about every men's fashion site has a photo much like this.

This is the "in" thing on Wall St. and boardrooms all over the world right now.
And believe it or not even at IBM the bastion of the dark solid suit, white shirt, dark tie world.

[imrichmond]

Just about every men's fashion site has a photo much like this.

This is the "in" thing on Wall St. and boardrooms all over the world right now.
And believe it or not even at IBM the bastion of the dark solid suit, white shirt, dark tie world.

Yegads! I didn't wear socks like that even when I was ten. No wonder the world's financial system is in crisis if this is an example of current boardroom thinking. This is yet further evidence, alas, that elegance is well and truly dead in our society. Personally, I've always felt that P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves, that paragon of sartorial correctness, hit the nail on the head when he told his employer, the feckless Bertie Wooster, that "A gentleman's hose should be seen, but not noticed."

This advice, of course, does not apply to highland wear, although I do find in some of the photos posted in these forums that the brilliantly coloured hose tends to take over the whole outfit, not only attracting the eye initially, but, by its brightness, making it virtually impossible for the eye to focus on anything else. While I'm all for a bit of colour, even to the extent of often wearing claret hose with both my McKenzie modern and my Scottish National kilts, I'm really not fond of a look that makes the hose the centrepiece of the outfit.

[Taskr]

Steve...back away from the sock machine... no multi-colour stripe kilt hose..please!!!!

[MNlad]

Takes me back to my childhood, when you saw sox like that here:



It's probably where they should stay. I like colored kilt hose, but those would be a bit much, Steve.

[MNlad]

Deleted. Redundant.

[styphonthal]

I think I may be getting old, because I cannot adjust to these new socks.

Apparently it is also the trend to wear shorter pants to display your socks.

[Taskr]

See, even pants wearers want in on some of the kilt visuals.

What did the OP ask again..oh right.. wearing bright coloured hose

[Manu]

Now, while I do like fun socks with suits, I don't believe they'll cross into kilt wearing. And I'll add, for those who feel those striped socks are too loud, diced and Argyll hose are anything but subtle!!

[Andrew Breecher]

One thing you'll notice in Jock Scot's photos is that the hose DO match a minor stripe in the tartan (mustard to yellow; red to red). That's a good way to make sure that the socks will compliment the kilt, but not look too matchy-matchy by trying to make them match the main colour blocks.

[tripleblessed]

Don't you? I wear black socks with my business pants, black socks if I was to wear dress suit+tie, white socks when I play tennis. So if you were to compare the two, should certain colors be used for certain events?

I think somewhere between many and most would agree, particularly for business. Take the business suit to a different circumstance, and its lounge
suit persona, I think, opens the door to much more latitude. But comparing Saxon attire guidelines and kilt guidelines is akin to comparing apples and kangaroos. Personal opinion, only.