Women’s Hosiery

I adore stockings, although I should say only the traditional sort – not hold-ups.  Hold-ups are one of the most irritating type of women’s hosiery ever to be foisted upon womankind in the name of fashion.  They either sink gracefully down to your ankles when you’re executing an intricate move on the dancefloor with the gorgeous Antonio Banderas lookalike from Human Resources, or they cut your circulation off halfway through the evening and you spend the rest of the night in the loo jumping up and down trying to get some feeling back in your legs.

I’ll wear tights in an emergency.  You know what I mean, you’re on the way out, ladder your last pair of stockings and the village shop only runs to American Tan tights in either xxxl or xxxs!  Cotton rich tights are cosy in winter and that, I thought, was the extent of my relationship with hosiery, until I went shopping recently with my teenage daughter.  She started looking for tights in one of her favourite shops and for a moment I was shocked by the sheer variety and colour of women’s hosiery that was on offer – neon colours, lacy ones, ones with motifs – just about everything you could ever hope to put your legs in.  Then it struck me that such delights had also been available for me at that age and that, like my daughter now, I would sometimes completely revamp an outfit at hardly any cost by buying some conversation starting stockings.

When we got home, I rummaged through a drawer and found, still in their packaging, a pair of black seamed stockings, the seam made out of tiny gold bricks, which my parents had given me as a stocking filler back in the ‘eighties!  I’d saved them because they were just too sumptuous to risk wearing!  I shall never underestimate the power of nylons again!