Net Stockings Popular Among American Women

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31124, 29 July 1966, Page 2

Net Stockings Popular Among American Women

(By

PATRICIA SKELTON

in the f'Christiqn Science Monitor")

The net is out for the American female and she is walking straight into it! Her stockings are getting lacier and racier.

Some of us who vowed we would never wear them are tiptoeing about in “fishnet,” “butterfly net,” and assorted crochet-type leggings.

There is no doubt about itThe “net” is a hot item for summer. Teens and adults who were far too conservative to don the heavy-textured hose shown in the stores last winter, are now stepping forth boldly in the white and off-

white open loop hose for casual wear. Even bigger—but not much of a surprise to anyone, apparently—is the popularity of the seamless, dressy, plain opaque sheer for an unbroken flow of colour, Jt is all part of the “total” look. Here again, white or off-white heads the. shade parade. Hosiery manufacturers gleefully give the teen-ager and her short skirt a lot of the credit for leading Mama to the "net.” In some areas, we are told, it has been the college set that has been slow to get the message. More than 100 fashionminded women turned out for a big luncheon in New York recently, and 99 per cent of them were wearing off-white stockings, 50 per cent of which were pets Burlington Hosiery’s fashion director, Betty Curry, says she feels so strongly that the pale-leg, pale-foot look will be big next winter that she is

adding another creamy new shade to her opaque sheer lines for fall. The Adler Company, a Burlington affiliate that makes casual hose, says the “overall crochet look” in casual hose is so strong it is coming out with 19 new styles for fall. D. W. Davis, vice-presi-dent of merchandising and marketing, just baek from a cross-country tour, reported: “I can’t speak for the customers, but the stopes are all buying it.” The same song is being sung by Hanes Hosier’s public relations representative, Mae Clarke, and Bryan Hosiery’s director of styling, Sally Cramer. Both say they will have new lines—and lots Of them—in opaque sheers and “netty” looks in the fall. This, they say, means both regular stockings and leotard styles.

What about the old faithfuls, the basic neutrals women have been wearing

since some genius invented nylons? They will still be around, it seems, but not so many of them!