THE STOCKING PROBLEM

Shannon News, 28 February 1928, Page 4

THE STOCKING PROBLEM

Gone are the good old days, when half a dozen of lisle or cashmere were all that one needed. Now we must have stockings to tone with dresses and suits—stockings that “go” with shoes of varying shades. No wonder we make the problem as easy as possible by pinning our faith to the neutral tones of sunburn and flesh. Not that these shades are really new, for Queen Victoria wore fleshcoloured ones, I know, because someone at Windsor gave one of her old pairs to a little friend of mine ' to wear on her wedding day. One has to wear something old for luck, you know. They were of the finest, sheerest silk, with a crown and “V.R.” worked in the tops of them. Now that we need so many pairs of stockings we’re often tempted to go in for very cheap makes. When buying them we ought to remember though, that stockings which quickly lose their shape aren’t cheap in the long run. All stockings whether of inexpensive lisle, silk or wool, are made out flat with ■an increase of stitches for the calf, and then seamed up afterwards.

The cheaper stockings often have a mock seam up the back, and the most deceptive mock fashion marks either side of it. But they are often only the wicked old ‘bag’ stocking presented to us in a new guise, steamed and pulled into shape to look like their more aristocratic sisters. When such stockings are washed they will lose ail their shapeliness of leg and make the nicest of ankles look thick and Clumsy. Lately, I find that there is a very clever way of mixing artificial silk with the real. This gives quite a decentdooking stocking at a cheaper price. But, of course, for real beauty and comfort there is noth. mg like pure silk. Its resilience makes the stocking keep its proper styape' in wear, and thus it retains a trim and neat appearance to the end of its life. A sheer chiffon lisle has much the same powers of recuperation.