Back to the Future With 80's Pantyhose

We're not going to discuss how it feels to hear clothing from my early teens referred to as "vintage," but the highly enjoyable blog, Couture Allure Vintage Fashion, has posted about the similarities between hosiery shown for Fall 2009 and legwear from the Decade of Greed. The ones above remind me of the infamous $900 Rodarte leggings (this link goes to some ideas for avoiding paying that much).

Designers brought us all kinds of patterned hosiery on the runways for Fall 2009. From textured tights with ribbing and stripes to lace and fishnets to florals and polka dots, it seems solid color stockings and tights are outré this season. But my dears, once more, what's old is new again. May I present patterned hosiery from Fall 1984.

There are three more images over at Couture Allure and, like many people, I remember owning several pairs of polka-dotted pantyhose like the ones she shows on her blog. Feeling nostalgic, I bought a pair of nude on nude polka-dotted hose earlier this year and ended up looking as though I had a skin condition. I think the ones in the 80's worked well because of contrast, as well as color. I'll remember that when I shop this fall.

Corset Making: Profile of a Corsetiere

A profile of Melanie Talkington from Lace Embrace Atelier in Vancouver, which sells handmade corsets and lingerie, as well as garters and stockings and other retro lingerie items. Gorgeously sexy stuff on their site including this gorgeous lace-up girdle.

Dahlia Delis: Stiletto in Hand

This is a special favorite of the images Dahlia gave me to share. She has lots of great black and whites on her personal site, but I love thinking about the soft tickle of the feathers, compared to the firm authority of the heel in her hand. I enjoy tremendously, wrapping my fingers around my stiletto and pulling my leg back while I'm wearing it. It's a wonderful feeling, like many things, I don't know why, I just know I enjoy it.

More photos from this 24 hour Dahlia extravaganza here.

Rago Garter Girdle

Retro lingerie is a big new fascination of mine and I was having a conversation with a friend the other day about the sexiness of girdles and we both agreed that Rago makes some of the sexiest, classic styles. I've been traveling a bit lately, as well as buying tons of hosiery and have to watch my shopping, but a six or eight strap garter girdle has been toward the top of my wishlist for a while. I thought it might be a little while before I actually bought one, though I have found myself perusing the selection at Dollhouse Bettie and StockingsHQ and daydreaming quite a bit.

Imagine my delight when I found that I had won a $50 Dollhouse Bettie gift certificate in The Panty Drawer's latest giveaway, and could just skip the waiting and go ahead and buy the Rago open-bottom girdle I'd been lusting after, guilt-free. There was squealing. I admit it.

This will be the first time I've used anything but a garter belt to hold up stockings and I am really looking forward to trying it. One thing I love about garter belts is the feeling of the straps when I walk and I think the bottom of the girdle will feel more interesting than a plain old ordinary belt would. Also, even thought I'm slenderizing at the moment, I can't deny that the phrase "an amazing amount of power to control your tummy and hips," in the product description isn't part of the appeal. Most of all I'm so grateful to Pink Nylon for having the giveaway so I didn't have to wait to fulfill my girdle fantasies.

Leyla Rose Burlesque Performance

A few weeks ago, when I was still doing Stockings of the Day, I posted a photo of a stunningly beautiful curvy, pin-up girl whose name I didn't know, but whose image has really stuck with me. I was thrilled this morning to learn that her name is Leyla B Rose and she's my new girl crush.


Share on Facebook

Joi Lansing

A Stocking Vixen reader sent me the link for the YouTube video above which brought the very sexy and legtacular actress and singer Joi Lansing to my attention.

Even though she appeared in Easter Parade with Judy Garland, Orson Welles's Touch of Evil, I Love Lucy, and The Beverly Hillbillies, all films and televisions shows I've seen, I'd never heard of her, possibly because it seems more of her high-profile work was on television shows like Love that Bob that weren't still in syndication when I was was a little girl. She also, sadly, died of breast cancer at the very young age of 44, and stopped working in about 1970.


I'm very glad for places like YouTube where people can still discover performers they haven't seen before or I would never have heard her wonderful singing or enjoyed the happy burlesque sexiness of the Silencer video. I wonder if the backup dancers had pruney fingers and toes by the end of that shoot, though.

SXSW Stockings

SXSW is currently in full swing down in Austin and, while I would love to have attended myself, I'm stuck up here in Seattle. Never fear, though, mobile reporter Kevin in Texas attended the Pastries and Pasties event on Friday night and shot this great photo of a mural inside Emo's where the event was being held. For the record, he declared the chocolate with kahlua and coffee cupcake his favorite of the night. Thank you for the wonderful photo, Kevin and for thinking of me while you were out and about taking photos.

Elmer Batters

Many of the hosiery lovers who read Stocking Vixen will probably chortle at my naiveté, but I have just discovered the photography of the very wonderful Elmer Batters. This will be a very enjoyable exploration for me. I'm off to have a nap, but expect to see quite a bit about Mr. Batters this week.

For Books Featuring Elmer Batters' Photos

Vintage Stockings Advertising Collected by Bill Ward

Flickr is one of my favorite places to find wonderful and creative images of legs and hosiery and find all kinds of people who love the same. It can get interesting, but there are also some really artful pieces of photography, as well as sometimes, some really fascinating photostreams.


One of my favorite photostreams is by Bill Ward, a 40 year old French graphic designer who loves the pin up girls of the 50's and 60's. He has a wide collection of some absolutely incredible vintage stocking and lingerie advertising and shares them with the world through his Flickr account under the user name vintage_review.



His hope is that people who see his collection will also share advertisements from their own collections because he would love to publish a book one day, devoted to this classic advertising form.


All Rights are Reserved on these images, but he has agreed to allow me to share some of them here at Stocking Vixen and my hope is that you will travel over to his Flickr stream to enjoy his lingerie advertising collection, as well as glamor shots of stars like Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren. It is well worth the time to take a look. This small sampling of images of stocking ads is just that, a small sampling; there are more than 140 images in the photostream.


Enjoy! Clicking on an image in this blog post should take you to a much larger version. It is well worth clicking on the first one alone for the politically incorrect and creative shade names of the hose.

Share on Facebook

My Favorite Red Mary Janes

I love two things a lot, a pretty Mary Jane shoe and a great bargain, and these red Guess Borda Mary Janes ended up being both of those things. The heel is 4.5" but, because of the 1" platform, they are surprisingly comfortable and easy to walk in. This is coming from someone who once tripped while standing completely still outside a Baskin-Robbins, so you can trust me on this. I am coordination-challenged, generally, and try to keep my that in mind when buying shoes, but these were so pretty I didn't care if I had to ride around in a mobility scooter while I wore them, especially since I had managed to find them at close to 50% off.

These shoes are a great example of comparison shopping online. At the time I bought them, they were being sold online from between $58.95 to $116, depending on the store. Today, I can find them from $75 at Amazon.com to $115 at Dillards.com. That's quite a difference in price! I wish I had actually realized what a great deal I was getting in December, because I would have bought them in black, too.