Sunday, January 4, 2009

Hosiery Help

Hosiery Help

There are some basic things to consider when choosing hosiery.

Durability:

The easiest thing to remember is- hosiery that is very sheer will be more fragile. Look at the denier of the hosiery. Denier refers to the sheerness of the hosiery. Ultra Sheer hosiery will have very low denier. Opaque hosiery will have a high denier.

Fabric Content:

Most hosiery today is a combination of fibers. Spandex is elastic and allows the hosiery to conform to the body. Spandex keeps you from having baggy hosiery. The more traditional fiber is nylon. Hosiery that is 100% nylon can be very sheer and lightweight on the legs. Most hosiery today is a Spandex and Nylon mix. The combination allows the hosiery to be soft and durable. Microfibers have become more widely used in hosiery. Microfiber hosiery is very soft and smooth.

Choosing a size:

Size has to be the most important thing to consider about hosiery. If I had to pick one thing that drives me crazy about hosiery, it would be sizing. Ladies it is important to be honest with ourselves about our true size. Getting a good fit is going to require trying different styles and sizes. Check the sizing chart on the back of the product. Domestic and international hosiery manufacturers have different sizing guides. My legs are a bit fuller and I find going up a size can really help especially when the hosiery is 100% nylon.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Hosiery Today

Stockings, Girdles, and Garter Belts


What you Should Know

These items are some of the sexiest pieces of lingerie a woman should own. Starting with stockings, hosiery is key to a great look. Unfortunately, many women have abandoned hosiery for the bare leg look. This probably comes from two sources- first, many women hate wearing pantyhose. Pantyhose are uncomfortable and a pain to wear. Second, the fashion industry has abandon hosiery.

Many women would be better served by wearing hosiery. Do you have perfect legs? Must of us have issues with our legs. Hosiery can help hide those imperfects. A good quality pair of stockings will help make your legs look great. So how do you find a good pair of stockings?

There are many styles of stockings you can choose. You can get stockings with seams, stockings without seams, and stockings with reinforced heels and toes. Seamed stockings have a seam “line” that goes up the back of the stockings. The only true seamed stockings are called Full Fashioned Stockings. The reason being that the stockings are one piece of material that is sewn together at the back to produce the seam. The seams of modern stockings are added after the stockings are made. Full Fashioned Stockings are the sexiest of all stockings. The special features of these stockings make these very popular. In addition to the back seam, a variety of heel designs are available. The most popular is the Cuban heel, but the Manhattan heel is also available. The heel and foot features of the stockings add extra reinforcement to the stockings. High heel shoes put stress on stockings. The heel and foot reinforcement help protect the stockings.

Similar reinforced heel and toe stockings are available without the back seam. The reinforcement adds strength to the stockings without the attention-grabbing seam at the back. Finally, you can get plain stockings with no added features to them. These are useful if you are going to be wearing sling backs and do not want a reinforced heel showing.

Once you have found good quality stockings, you will need to hold them up. If you would like to have a garment that will provide some shaping and support your stockings, you need a girdle. Girdles come in many different types. Open bottom girdles and panty girdles work very well for holding up stockings.

If you just want to hold up your stockings and do not need the shaping features, a garter belt is what you need. Now you probably have seen garter belts in lingerie catalogs and at the local shopping mall. Most of these garter belts are not designed to support stockings for daily wear. If you want to wear your stockings out around town, you need a garter belt that will conform to your body and that has metal garter clips to hold up your stockings.