etcetera | Fashion Electronic Telegraph
Saturday 28 December 1996
Issue 582
Stockings and suspenders stay on the back shelf

They are undoubtedly sexy, so why are they not more popular? asks Harriet Quick FLICK through back issues of magazines from The Face to Harper's & Queen, and one thing has remained consistent: underwear. Lacy knickers, frilly bras, satin bustiers are everywhere. The new confident, stridently sexy woman has, claim the magazines, rekindled her passion for proper lingerie. A younger generation, brought up in five-pack white pants, are queuing to buy super frilly pieces at shops such as Agent Provocateur and Boisvert. Women are buying it for themselves as well as men for women - but suspenders are being left on the shelf. Stockings and suspenders might be sexy and iconic in the wardrobe of a babe, but they are proving hard to entertain after years of minimal, streamlined fashion. Few want the bulk or, indeed, the sheer impracticality of fasteners and belts - and we have all become conscious about visible lines. A quick survey of the hosiery racks reveals stockings relegated to the corner; a glance into the undies department shows suspenders pushed to the back."Bra sales are booming," says Sue Mahy of La Perla, "but suspenders . . . Over the past few years, sales have dropped drastically." This applies from luxe to everyday, and Marks & Spencer reports a similar pattern. In its hosiery departments, it is body-controlling tights - its "Shape-Up" line - that women are buying in quantity. Suspender belts get a look-in only in the "glamour" line, relegated to little more than a fanciful novelty. The overriding trend in hosiery and underwear is to make items as seamless and smooth as possible. This month, Harper's & Queen declares that the thong, the ultimate minimal knicker, has at last become respectable. Even colours have turned to second-skin shades. But suspenders have a flirt appeal that cannot be denied; flesh-coloured knickers just don't make the mark in the undressing game. Why, then, has no one come up with a streamlined, comfortable suspender belt? While there have been attempts to reduce the bulk of the fastenings, there has been little success in reducing the downward drag factor that undermines every wearer of stockings. One entrepreneur came up with Scantihose a couple of years ago. These were tights cut out around the crotch to look like suspenders and stockings. They were as ugly as they sound - and hold-ups, which cut into the thigh, have never been that successful. The most acceptable solution, in the meantime, is "stocking"-look tights. Made by Jonathan Aston, these are nylon tights with a stitched seam and heel detail that has been revived from the Forties silk stocking original. They can be bought in fuchsia, emerald, brown, black and ivory and are also available as stockings. Women have been queuing up to buy the tights. Naturally, by the time you undress the illusion will fail, but until suspenders are reinvented, then the stocking look serves just fine.