Changing of the Temperature

Now that we are in March the average daily high temperature will increase by 12 degrees by the time we get to April 1st.  Then another 11 degrees in April.  As the temperatures go up my selection of kilts and how I wear them will change.  As someone who thinks a severe winter is when the temperature goes below 60F I wear kilts in a warmer configuration during the winter.   Now that I have a good heavy wool kilt (the one I made last summer, see earlier posts) I have been getting a lot of use out of it.  I also wear my Union Kilt leather during the winter and not so much in the summer.  In the winter I wear mostly Lewis kilt hose. 

The Lewis line of socks is nice and heavy with some wool in them if I recall.  Nice and warm in the winter.   In the summer I only wear those if I need to go someplace nice.  For the summer it is boot socks or regular knee socks pushed down.  Finding knee socks can be a problem.  Over the past couple of years I have experimented with various types of knee socks.  Most of mine now come from Sock Dreams.  They have a line I think they call “Crunch” socks.   The have recognized that guys like these for kilts so they have them identified as such.  Sock Dreams sells mostly to women  but they have found guys have a need for some of their longer socks.   A few years back I also found Gold Toe knee socks for guys in white and black.  I wear a lot of the black in the summer pushed down.   For the white it has enough cotton that it will take a dye very well.  I have dyed a few to get other colors like a tan and green.     I have trouble finding true boot socks.  Boot socks are a little longer than crew socks.  I tried Soccer socks but did not like the look.  Some of those have color stripes or sports wording on them.   I have kind of given up on socks in color in the summer.  Anymore I tend to just go with black and be done with it.  My shoes are black. 

For shoes the summer is kind of backwards.  With socks pushed down my favorite shoe is 10” boot.  There may be some pictures of that configuration in older posts.  I got those boots at Sears a few years back.  They carry a Harley Davison name plate.  Now in the summer one would think something lighter would work better and the boots would be for the winter.  Looking at pictures of causal kilts in the summer a lot of the guys are wearing boots.  Something like hiking boots from 8” to 10” tall.  In the winter apparently wearing kilt socks up to the knee with boots is some kind of kilt no-no.  I will do it if snow is on the ground but other than that a low dress shoe is the choice for most fair weather winter days. 

Some wear sandals (barefoot, no socks) with their casual kilt outfit.  I am just not an open toe shoe guy.  For some reason I don’t like to wear shoes like that.  I have worn cloth running type shoes but those just don’t look right with normal crew socks, or socks pushed down.  Almost better with no socks at all.  I think I should take the attitude of wearing shoes I wear with shorts and do the same with the kilt.  That would be the cloth shoes with crew socks.  This summer I will get another opportunity to revisit this topic again. 

I also tend to wear more utility type kilts in the summer rather than winter.  During the winter it was almost always tartan kilts.  I do have a heavy denim kilt (Union Kilts) that gets worn in the winter and not in the summer.  The thing has so much material in it that summer is rather warm for that one.  For summer tartan kilts you can’t beat the real PV kilts from USAKilts.  I have a couple of them and those will get a lot of use this summer. 

For shirts I wear long sleeve polo shirts in the winter.   Also long sleeve button down shirts if I want something a little nicer.  In the summer it will be short sleeve polo shirts, t-shirts (some with kilt related statements on them), and short sleeve button down shirts for nicer occasions.   A kilt jacket only for something very nice that more than likely involves wearing a tie. 

So bring on summer so I can swap out the wardrobe in the closet and ditch this heavy winter coat.

 

Winter Look with the 8.5 yard, 13oz wool, kilt I made 

Summer look with a causal PV kilt from USAKilts