Yesterday my friend Katie and I went out to the beloved Fabric Depot (imagine a locally owned JoAnn’s, but bigger, and focused on fabric and sewing) While milling about the store a woman approached Katie, commenting on her style (Katie too dresses vintage on a regular basis).  I appeared in the middle of the conversation, and the woman looked at me, and with regards to our stockings and mention of wearing girdles, she replied with “And you wear all of that voluntarily?” We laughed and said yes, but did not get into our reasons, she just complimented us on our style and dedication, but again, this is something that does come up and goes get odd reactions.

So, why do I wear girdles and stockings? For several reasons.  There is first off the image reason.  Being a person who dresses consistently dresses in vintage, I feel the need to upkeep the image under my garments as well, this means girdles with garters, and stockings, especially seamed stockings.  Yes, there are non-seamed stockings, but seams are part of the period (unless I’m dressing 60s).  Seams to some seem like a terrible burden, but to me are fun, and continue my emulation of the time.  Additionally, since pin-ups are a great inspiration to me, garters and seamed stockings are a must!  I do own vintage seamed stockings, but they are costly, and do not possess the stretch of modern day stockings.  I use vintage, fully-fashioned stockings on special occasions, and for pin-up shoots where the back top of the stockings are shown (showing the keyhole).  Vintage stockings can be found at various antique shops, Etsy and Ebay, while new stockings with seams can be found at various shops on-line in a variety of styles and prices.  Including 3wishes.com and What Kate Did.

Then there are my practical reasons.  Even as a child I hated wearing tights. I still hate it. No matter how much I try I always end up getting that gap between the crotch of the tights or pantyhose and my actual crotch, which always make me walk funny.  I also always seem to destroy tights due to my nails, which are rather long, since I tend dig them into the hose, fighting to get them up.  With stockings, it is a much gentler motion to put them on, and there is no gap to deal with.