I’ve just found out according to Shine UK, that apparently stockings and wearing them, went out in the 1980′s. Obviously these trends vary worldwide, but it I’m told that the last time wearing ‘pantyhose’ was fashionable was when Meg Ryan was in her heyday and we all wanted to dress like Princess Di. Luckily I don’t give a damn about being in fashion then isn’t it?!
It seems that at present, everyone is all a twitter about how Princess Katherine has ‘brought back’ the wearing of stockings with her sheer clad pins, but I have to wonder… did they ever really disappear? Perhaps it is simply the circles I move in, but I can’t say I was really aware of a significant absence. It may also be to do with where you live, but in Melbourne, wearing hose of some description ( be they pantyhose or my personal preference- stockings) is really a matter of necessity for climate.
Some years ago, when I moved to Sydney, I was horrified by the lack of properly attired office workers out there. I’d see girls enmasse on their lunch breaks in sharply tailored black suits, faux pearls and knees that looked like tangerines. I’d no sooner have gone bare legged than have gone bra-less, and couldn’t figure out why they did. So I started to ask around.
The general consensus was two things; firstly it was too hot and humid in Sydney to wear them (although not too hot apparently for black suits), and that the girls who did wear them, was a matter of company policy to present a more polished image. These numbers were few and far between. Mind you, that was almost ten years ago and every time I’m there now I’m still shocked at how many office girls forgot the other half of their skirts!
Reading this latest article in Shine UK, the overwhelming sentiment seems to be that people saw wearing stockings / pantihose as “uncomfortable”, “painful”, and oppressive. To quote the article-
“First Lady Michelle Obama, though known on occasion to sport the legwear, is not a fan. “I stopped wearing pantyhose a long time ago, because it was painful and they’d always rip,”"
And I have to wonder, what are these medieval torture devices these ladies seem to have experienced? I must say I’m not a fan of pantihose myself, although I do find that compression hose certainly have their uses. But still, in all my experience the biggest complaint I have about them is that they just aren’t sexy. But painful? What are you wearing? And how can this possibly be worse than the paralysing stilettos we still continue to wear nylons or no nylons?
Forgetting the matter of what is ‘proper’ when dressing, it seems to me a total no-brainer that you would choose to wear stockings rather than to go barelegged for the most part. The girls I know who do go barelegged, are always the ones forking out for spray on tans, ending up with streaked legs the moment it rains. These same girls are the ones seen standing by the side of the road shivering in their ‘state of undress’ at 3am.
For me, wearing stockings not only makes sense when it comes to regulating body temperature and colour, but they are just so much more chic. Shiny or matt, there is the way they feel as they hug your legs. (Maybe because I buy the kinds without the inbuilt spikes Michelle Obama seems to have experienced.) Wearing a dress without stockings makes me feel naked.. and not in a good way.
So I’d like to know your thoughts and experiences. Have you experienced these “killer” pantyhose that so many seem adverse too? Have you always worn them or never? Do you only save stockings for special occasions or do you make every day on occasion?
