Hose Height / How much knee?

[CeilidhDoc]

I originally asked this in another thread, but Nathan kindly pointed out it would probably be better in a separate thread of its own, so here it is:

I have a question that comes up for me looking at photos and reading through threads but that I have never personally seen addressed (I am sure it has been discussed somewhere, but I just haven't found it).

I see a lot of talk about the proper kilt length, as there should be. I often see no discussion about sock / hose height.

Sometimes looking at photos where the kilt is just right (at halfway up the knee to the top of the kneecap range) the hose strike my eye as quite low, leaving a rather large gap of the middle of the leg showing. Sometimes this is due to the hose slipping and scrunching up about the ankle, which is somewhat sloppy for my taste. Sometmes it is because someone is going for the casual rugby shirt look and has athletic socks intentionally scrunched all the way down. But what I see more often and am a bit perplexed by is hose that are tight, not slipping, and quite far below the knee, with the rest of the outfit in perfect order, at least as far as my untrained foreign enthusiast eye is concerned.

Do any of you have any rules of thumb on what range of hose height, or maybe distance from kilt bottom to hose top, is acceptable?

Perhaps I am going about it all wrong, or perhaps my legs are oddly proportioned, but when I find hose that fit my feet, and turn down the top, I would be hard pressed to get it down as low as many seem to intentionally wear their hose top while still having the hose look properly rolled. This usually results in the hose coming just about 1-3 finger breadths below the bottom of my kneecap, give or take. But I see a lot of photos of smartly dressed men with the hose tops far lower than that.

From the perspective of a traditional purist, what is proper? Is there a different set of guidelines for day attire vs evening formal attire?

It might be helpful to me, and possibly others, trying to get it "right."

Slàinte

[creagdhubh]

For hose worn with both Highland day and evening attire, I typically adhere to the same 3-finger breadth approach that Nathan spoke of in the other thread.

[Geoff Withnell]

I am going to take an engineer's viewpoint on this. Looking at the average calf, starting from the bottom of the knee and going down the leg, the leg gets wider for several inches, reaches a maximum and then starts its taper to the ankle. If the garter/flash elastic is below that widest point, it is going to tend to slide down the leg, resulting in unattractive rumpled kilt hose. So when putting on my hose, I pull them all the way up. I them put on my garters, so that the bottom edge of the garter is just above the widest part of my leg. I then fold the hose over the garter, which results in the top of the hose being about an inch above the widest part of my leg. Or about 2 inches below the bottom of my knee. I believe most men would get a very similar result. So very much like your 1-3 finger breaths below the bottom of the knee.
Or you could just wear them where you thought they look best, and let the rest of the world and any kilt police go hang.

[Tobus]

Dang, others posted while I was typing, but I think we're generally in agreement.

The general rule is three finger widths below the kneecap. I think even the military uses that one, though I'm not 100% certain. I think a better rule is to set the height of your hose so that the garter (or elastic flashes) are just above the widest part of your calf. This is all it needs to keep from slipping down.

Look at MacLeay's Highlander portraits and take note of the hose height and kilt height. This is what looks "right" to me. Kilt generally at top of knee, and hose just above the widest part of the calf. Showing more knee and upper shin is better than showing less. Keep in mind that most people will be seeing you from eye level, so your kilt will appear to be lower on your knee (and hiding more of your leg) than you might think. A lot of people will just barely have any knee exposed, but when seen from eye level, it looks like their hose run right up to kilt level. It's not a flattering look.

This is about where I wear it (see below). My calves don't have much flare, but even still, I could stand to wear them a bit lower than I do.

Buying hose a size too small is great unless you already wear a small like I do. Then you're just flat out of luck!

[CeilidhDoc]

Thanks all.

My only issue with tying the garters just above the widest part of the calf and then folding the top down is that on some of my hose when I do this the way I would like, then I have folded beyond the part of the hose that is supposed to be folded over, resulting in the rear of the lower portion of the hose being right where people see the hose the most. This is because the hose that fit my feet best seem to be a slight bit too long for my legs in some cases. So then I have to come up with a creative way to fold over the top to avoid this showing.

I actually like the chunkier look of rolling over the hose more rather than less though, so if I can just get the fold right it may actually look far more flattering on my skinny calves. I think if I wanted to achieve this, I might have to fold the hose a bit, then tie ther garters over it to hold that fold in place, and then roll the top over them... or something to that effect. This is not the case with all of my hose, but some of them have this issue, and some of them that have the issue are ones I rather enjoy wearing.

Slàinte!

[Chas]

This has been quite adequately answered by all of the above, but answer I will. This is the absolute lowest the top of my hose will go. This picture was taken towards the end of a long day and the hose might have slipped a inch. I am the good looking one in the middle, by the way.

[Macman]

I like mine a tad shorter. I'd estimate 2 - 3 fingers below the hinge bone on the outside.

[BBNC]

Wherever you feel looks good on you, or whatever your better half thinks. But if you have to have a measurement, 2/100 of a mm is impressive to say if someone asks, and most folks haven't a clue what that means, LOL.

[Steve Ashton]

I chose this photo to show hose height simply because I was up on a stage so you are not seeing the parallax effect in other photos. The photographer was lower, about the height of my sporran so you are seeing everything straight on.



I'm in the school that likes my kilts at the top of my kneecap and my hose higher than that worn in the military.

There is a bone that you can feel just under the bottom of the kneecap and half way between the front of your leg and the side of your leg.
The top of my hose in this picture are right under that bone. This is also one hand width under the bottom of my kneecap.

This is higher than you see in the pic posted by MacMan above.

[SeumasA]

I'm only 5'7" but I have big calves (16 inches), so the only thing that works for me is to put the garter right above the top of my calf muscle. That just happens to work out to Nathan's three fingers below the kneecap.