– Would anyone care to shed some insight on whether certain ethnicities are more inclined to wear stockings as opposed to others? I would like to hear some feedback.
– It is an issue I have been thinking of recently as I stock ‘skintone’ stockings which could seem a bit offensive to some customers. Even though 95% of my stocking customers are white I have been thinking of stocking a bitter chocolate colour as well (although this is for selfish reasons as I think they’d look great on dark skin) – I’ve got a few black and asian friends so I’ll have to find out what they do for hosiery.
– Here in OZ, the plane loads of young female Japanese tourists who come here seem to have a fixation with hosiery. I have even seen them wear ph with their bathers whilst swimming at the beaches here! In Singapore, the office and shop girls dress extremely well, with great attention paid to their hair and make-up, always with skirts/dresses and pantyhose and heels.
But the most delightful sight is in Bangkok where the office girls in lovely tight skirts, pantyhose and heels seem to be able to gracefully board and disembark the ferries on the rivers without the help of gang-planks. This involves stepping (really more of a leap) up onto the jetties, from ferries which don’t actually stop but merely slow down a bit. You can spend hours watching this and not get tired of the parade.
I’m sorry to have mentioned the dreaded ph word in this forum, but when you are a dedicated leg man and stocking watcher such as I, one has to carefully take notice of what is being worn and take the bad with the good.
– When I lived in San Francisco and Oakland in the late ’70s and the early ’80s, it seemed that seams were the required getup for Central American, particularly Nicuraguan babes out on a date, or dressed up out with husband and the kiddies on a weekend night. I used to see Mexican and Mexican American babes all seamed up in LA and at big Tejano dances I used to go to in South Tejas during the same years. Even here in Miami I have been at the home of middle aged Latino friends and seen the wife getting all seamed up for a night at some cultural association.
Not to mention my soul sisters. I have seen some really seamy black women. In the south especially it continued I think into the 1970s as a dress up for church thing.
– Is there necessarily a rule that hosiery should match leg colour? White women wear black or dark-coloured stockings after all… I think a black woman could well look stunning in cream or white hose!
– Living in a large urban area with a huge black population I have come to the conclusion that the sexiest, most ladylike women are African-Americans. Even yesterday at the mall the most glamorous woman was a black woman in gorgeous calf-length summer dress and high-heeled sandals. Her white sisters generally looked ugly in ill-fitting tank tops, shorts and flats. There is hosiery designed for African-American women. And it’s ‘skin-toned.’ But like the ‘racist’ connotations associated with ‘skin toned’ band-aids, ‘skin-toned’ nylons are not the right shades for black women; these stockings are for dark pigmentation & some very sheer. Generally speaking the only glamour left in America is among black women. If you want to see wonderfully-dressed women, in the sexiest shows and, yes, wearing nylons, go to black concerts or nightclubs or gospel services on Sunday.
– Your observations equate very well to fashion trends in Atlanta. Offices, clubs, shows, churches, and streets reflect more feminine attire among African-American women in Atlanta.
