An Observation of Panty Hose

There was a day not too long ago when I wore pantyhose to work. I would color coordinate them with my outfit. They could be black, off-black, sheer, nude, suntan, brown, bone, navy, and even sometimes red or bright blue. I would never have been caught wearing a suit nor dress without them. I would even wear them under pants in the winter time for a extra layering of warmth. I would feel naked exposing my legs and feel underdressed and sloppy if they were not part of my ensemble. Just like jewelry. The pantyhose were part of the finish you needed to make it look like you care about coiffure. That was 1991. Fast forward to today. Okay, it was a long time ago. That is besides the point. This does lead me to last Wednesday when I was contemplating what to wear for my daughter's Jazz Band Dinner Dance. The event was to take place the next day. I had a choice of wearing dress slacks or a fun "swing style" skirt with my rhinestone button, red taffeta jacket. Either would work. Then the pantyhose dilemma set in. I did not have any off-black in my possession. Did they even still make pantyhose and if so what retailer still sold them. I have not worn them in, oh my, I can't remember the last time I did wear them. It must have been to my daughter's dance recital ten years ago. TEN YEARS AGO! I have noticed that no one really wears panty hose anymore anyway. Most women wear pants, capris, short and dresses and skirts without hosiery. They even wear dress shoes without hosiery! My feet sting just thinking about this. I am not sure if retailers carry these items anymore yet I do know they have entire sections filled with doodads to put into your shoes and sandals so as not to get blisters from going without hose. This knowledge added to my lack of knowing if retailers had hosiery in their inventory mix! I wore the pants in the end to end my dilemma and put it all aside until the evening of the Dance. I was seated at the dinner table when all of a sudden my eyes were drawn to the young, teen aged girls all wearing short, tight dresses, high heeled shoes and no hosiery. I remembered my time of not being caught dead in a social setting such as it was without the ensemble finish the hose gave to my outfit. Okay. The girls are young and it is the style. There may come the day again in their lives when it will not be the style to go without the ensemble finish. They may be nostalgic for their days gone by. I then started observing other women in my age category. The moms and aunts of my daughter's peers. Low and behold, some were still in pantyhose and while the majority were not! My next obvious observation was the hose less individuals looked sheik and current, while the hose laden were out dated and somewhat dowdy. How could this be? How did this happen? Most importantly, WHEN did this happen? In all my love of reading and scouring anything from WWII, I always am astounded by the fact that silk stockings and nylon hose were rationed to the point they were more or less banned during the war years. How many times did the fact make its way into being what women dreamed of? Or how hose were used as bribery or black market morsels? The hose were coveted so much women would draw lines on the back of their legs to make it look as if they were in fact wearing hosiery! I can assure you no teen age girl the other night would think of drawing a line on the back of their legs. They would find it laughable or worse, incomprehensible.

From this thought I can offer only one conclusive explanation of perhaps why this all happened. It is easy. It boils down to the general idea we all want what we can not have and do not want what we can. During the war, women were told you can't have the hose due to the sacrifice they needed to give for the good of the men in service fighting for our freedom. Today, our society has endless means to have whatever your wish with no sacrifice to no one person, place or thing. Perhaps this is an over generalization. My hosiery dilemma made my brain go into hyper drive, once again, and allow myself to be amused.