Where to Buy a Garter Belt

One of my lovely readers asked on my last post if I knew where to buy the garter belt /waspie that Fernanda Tavares is wearing in the photo. I know that it's made by the French company Lejaby and that it's from their Elixir line, but unfortunately, it comes from the Fall/Winter 2007 line. Here's a photo of it in red and black (and it did also come in white). I'm coming up short in my efforts to find anyone still selling it online, but know I have some super-sleuths who read this blog who may be able to out-Sherlock me. If any of you know of somewhere where this belt can still be purchased, I'd be grateful to hear about it in the comments so we can pass the information along.



In the meantime, Faire Frou Frou has some beautiful out-of-the-ordinary garter belts, including the two above that are particularly beautiful. The Elle MacPherson one with polka dots on the right is similar to the Lejaby and is incredibly affordable at $55.



Another great place for you to buy beautiful garter belts or waspies (or any lingerie, actually) is Cazar, who carry many, many luxury lingerie brands and ship across Europe and the U.S. It's worth perusing the Cazar website just to see the high-resolution photos of hot chicks in their undies. Of course, there are many other retailers who carry gorgeous stuff, but those are two particular favorites of mine for super-special items.



Edited to Add: I really was remiss in not mentioning the fabulous Joanna's Wardrobe earlier as a place to get unique ways to hold up your stockings, especially is she is one of the exclusive retailers where you can buy Stockings and Romance lingerie, which I think is very cool stuff. I believe a lot of it is still sewn by hand.



Now that I'm mentioning things I should have earlier, in latex, no one makes more beautiful lingerie than Atsuko Kudo Couture and latex stockings look most awesome with a latex belt or underthingy attached.

Sigh, now I have a terrible urge to go shopping. How about you? Where do you like to shop for your really special lingerie, the things you keep wrapped in tissue until it's time to wear them? I look forward to hearing because I always learn new things from all of you.

Sock Army Going Out of Biz Sale

Jenny and Christian Kittle who run Sock Army are about to welcome a baby, which means they'll too busy to decorate legs for a while, so they're shutting down the website. Everything they have in stock is 50% off and shipping is a flat $5.

I very honestly was not enamored by my sole shopping experience at Sock Army, in January, mostly because the site was not even remotely up-to-date regarding what they had in stock, but hearing now that they were on their last legs at the time and that they were in the throes of pregnancy leaves me in a more forgiving mood. I did receive my order very quickly and I loved my handmade garters, which are an item unique to Sock Army. A pair of the Black Widow garters can now be had for $6, which is a great price for something super-hep and well-made.

Check them out. At 50% off, it's hard to go wrong.

Bettie Page Playing Cards by Olivia

I wrote recently about my trip to Las Vegas and my visit to the Bettie Page Clothing Store while I was there. While I mostly admired what was on offer, I couldn't leave without making at least one small purchase and ended up buying a gorgeous pack of Bettie Page Playing Cards featuring art by the beloved pin up artist, Olivia.

One of the reasons I bought them is not just because the images are beautiful, as I'm sure is evident from the examples I've posted here, nor because I love playing cards and the idea of taking everyone's money in poker with Bettie's assistance appealed to me, but because the store had a selection of the cards displayed in a really beautiful frame with black matting and they really looked fantastic presented that way. I'm still undecided as to whether I'll play with them or frame them. Olivia's site is selling them for close to half what they were being sold for at the brick and mortar store, so I'll probably just pick up another set so I don't have to decide.

Bettie Page Clothing

I'm back from my week-long jaunt to Sin City and LaLa Land (also known as Las Vegas and Los Angeles to those not prone to nicknaming entire metropolitan areas) and, as a result, gained several nylon-related experiences I'll write about this week. I made a few interesting purchases before leaving on my trip, but today's post is about part of my time in Las Vegas.

For the record, the clear winner, hosiery-wise on the cocktail waitresses, shoeshine ladies and cigarette girls along The Strip is fishnet pantyhose. Other than black fishnets, I only managed to spy a few pairs of nude nylons and one pair of black fencenets (which are technically fishnets, anyway) on the ladies of Las Vegas. I was only in vogue the first night when I wore fishnets and my red platform Mary Janes to go and see Wayne Newton, who very surprisingly put on an incredible show with some help from his band and some dancers. My friend and I may have been one of the five people under 75 in the audience, but that's another story. We also chose not to enjoy the menu item, "Peanut M&M's" which I believe also enhanced our Wayne experience.

For some reason, and many of my readers will not be happy with me, I only packed nude pantyhose for the remainder of the trip. This is not a typo. I'll be waiting for the villagers with torches up at the castle. I tend to choke when it comes to dressing for warm weather and this trip seemed to think I was a frumpy 67 year old woman named Madge when I packed.

The morning after Wayne, I took a stroll along the Miracle Mile Shops in the Planet Hollywood complex and was very pleased to discover the brick-and-mortar version of Bettie Page Clothing, tucked amidst the Victoria's Secrets and American Apparels. The store wasn't huge, but it was absolutely chock-a-block with Bettie Page-inspired clothing, art, and accessories.




Me being me, I made a beeline for the stockings, which were tucked away in the back corner of the store. After a moment of terror at being faced by some Leg Avenue, I was very pleased to discover that they carried several styles each from Stockingirl and Secrets in Lace. I have to admit, I didn't espy any garter belts, but I didn't think to ask. Obviously, the mannequin in the photo above is wearing a six strap garter girdle, so my guess is that they were just in a different spot. I was on a budget while I was traveling, so I skipped picking anything up, especially since the styles they had on offer were fairly basic and I can order online, but it was fun to see those two brands on a rack in a physical store.

As, I was watching my pennies, I skipped delving too much into the merchandise in the store because I didn't want to tempt myself into being naughty, but, while my friend and a salesperson were agreeing that, "the tie makes the outfit," I couldn't resist buying a pack of playing cards with paintings of Bettie Page by Olivia on each card. I will scan some of those cards in this week and share them with you, since I can't find any decent images of them online.

Her First Set of Stockings

I am hoping this will be the first post in what will become a tradition here at Stocking Vixen of readers sharing their positive hosiery experiences and memories. This is an absolutely charming story, written by Eric in Ontario, telling the story of his first love, "S" and their experience buying her first pair of stockings together.
I hope you all enjoy this story as much as I did and please feel free to share any of your own similar experiences, or thoughts in general, in the comments. I'd love to read them.

Her First Set of Stockings
Introducing something new to someone you care about, even love, can be a tricky business fraught with danger. Having long appreciated the female leg clad in sheer nylon it was something that had been on my mind for sometime during my relationship with S.

S was my first love – perhaps my most intense love – as first love often must be. And as S and I both were experimenting and learning our respective roles as each others’ friend and lover we fell into this wonderful exploration with passion and an open-mindedness that young adults have and hope to never loose.

But how to broach my interest and passion in stockings? S was a farm girl more comfortable in jeans, a wool sweater and an anorak than fine lingerie and stockings. Luckily circumstances were to prevail that would conspire to help create a wedge from which I could leverage my passion for stockings in a manner that would benefit S and certainly benefit me!

The wedge, as it were, was S was to become as she put it “corporate cookie.” Though this term was meant with some derision as in her wildest dreams S never thought she would be dressing in corporate attire for any job, less a career. But as happenstance would have it she got a job as a sales manager for a marketing firm specializing in supporting the arts and she was required to upscale her wardrobe from the comfort of cotton to that of nylons, dresses and skirts and appropriate footwear.

Since this was a summer job one of her first complaints was the discomfort pantyhose created in the humidity that southern Ontario is apt to experience due to its geographic proximity to some of the largest bodies of freshwater in the world. Even with the benefit of air conditioning S hated the tactile feel of pantyhose.

This was my chance.

One weekend I gathered my courage and took her down to Rosalind’s, a fine lingerie shop in my home town. The proprietor, Rosalind, was a breath of fresh air in lingerie retailing. She had a passion for and a deep knowledge of her well selected stock and she handled each customer with understanding and enthusiasm. Knowing that S would immediately feel at ease with Rosalind I took S downtown on some other pretense and when we were about to pass the lingerie store suggested we go in to look around.

Somehow my apprehension disappeared, and for what at that time was unusual, I took the initiative and opened the conversation with Rosalind when she greeted us and asked us if she could help us with anything.

Taking the proffered bait I offered out that ‘we’ were looking for some stockings and a garter belt. Rosalind in her way and without missing a beat asked if this was for “pleasure or for every day wear.” I could have kissed her. It was obvious to me my intent and I am sure S knew what too but Rosalind’s comment, with its implied humor, broke the ice nicely and S, being the assertive woman she was, made it known it was for every day wear.

Rosalind selected some eminently practical and non-frilly garter belts and showed them to us and even mentioned about the one she was recommending that the small rosette in the center of the belt was “sexy” and suggested S try it on. S went into the change closet and then emerged after sometime with the statement that the garter belt was fine and now it was time to select some hose. Inside I was beaming and expectant for the time S would first wear them.

A selection was made. A pair of taupe and grey stockings with no adornments like reinforced toes or heels – that would come later – and we paid for our purchase. Well, I gladly paid, and off we went.

As it turned out S was a stocking convert. As long as we were together she never wore pantyhose to work or for any time she wanted to wear a dress or skirt and she knew that like Pavlov’s dog, any time she covertly revealed to me that she was wearing stockings an appropriate response could be guaranteed from me!

Rosalind was guaranteed a return customer as well. I would often drive from Toronto to buy lingerie for S and Rosalind would always preface our dealings with, “Is this for you or for S?”

---by Eric

How I Became a Stocking Vixen

I always wore skirts much more than my friends growing up, mostly with knee socks in elementary school, then with various shades of pantyhose and tights when I was in high school. Not because of any fetish that I was aware of, I just gravitated that way, partially because my waist is a lot smaller than my hips and it used to be much harder to find pants that fit properly. I did always like finding interesting hose and I owned a lot of it and I did like looking at my legs a lot. I can remember lying on the couch in my rec room with my legs and feet up in the air just looking at them and thinking, "Are they pretty? I think they might be, but can I know?" in a very typical girl-becoming-a woman, kind of way. I have no idea if there was something latent in there. I suspect there must have been because of how crazy the Hosiery Monster went once I let her out of the cage.

I have always thought other female legs were gorgeous. When I was pretty young, I can remember reading an article in People magazine about three different women who each claimed she was the model for the For Your Eyes Only movie poster, and I saved that magazine for years and can remember scrutinizing it fairly often, partially because one of the women said that she had been studying her legs since she was five years old and knew every curve and had no doubt they had used her legs in the final poster (they hadn't).

I do know when the switch flipped in my head though and hosiery and shoes became truly very tingly-charged for me. I was in a Designer Shoe Warehouse, of all places, buying boots and an incredibly good-looking couple was one aisle over from me and the man was kneeling at the woman's feet helping her try on different styles of black knee boots and I could tell he was desperate for her to buy these boots. She was wearing jeans, but the leg was rolled up and she had on a pair of very dark, dense lace black hose (couldn't tell what type) and the poor guy was putting her boots on and very incredibly slowly zipping up the boots while cupping her calf and it was obviously all he could do not to lick his way up her leg. The tension in the air was incredible.

Her calf was very slender and they were trying on boot after boot because they were all too big and he ran around the store, almost in a panic, because he really wanted her to leave with some boots and she was visibly losing patience for the whole endeavor. It was obviously "his thing" and she didn't get it (except I do give her props for wearing hose under her jeans). I just sat on my little shoe-trying-on bench with one foot halfway in the Franco Sarto boot I was going to buy and tried not to stare too hard or climb over the shoes and ask if he'd put boots on me, too.

For some reason, I left there not fixated on boots so much, as really focused on hosiery. Maybe it's because the boots weren't working out for her, but she was already wearing the hosiery, I don't know, but after that I started rabidly collecting photographs of hosiery I found online and buying piles of it in stores, then garter belts, then shopping online because I wasn't satisfied with what I could find in brick-and-mortar stores. It was at the point that I realized I was spending hours every single day looking at photos of hosiery or trying on hosiery or plotting my next hosiery purchase, that I thought it might be a very good idea to start this blog. Especially since I enjoyed the thinking and looking and wearing I was doing so much.

So, that's how I became so obsessed with hosiery. I think hosiery is an endlessly fascinating subject and, recently, my focus has turned towards stockings and thigh highs more than anything else, possibly because they are slightly more novel to me, I'm not certain. They definitely feel sexy, so I don't really need to dissect it too much. I'm just very busy enjoying myself and obviously a good stocking tease is something that really turns my crank. Crank turning is a good thing in my book.