We have departed from the times when wearing stockings were mandatory but they have now made a frivolous comeback. Rather than wearing them as wardrobe essentials, they are now delightful accessories that cause a stir in your outfit. I take pleasure in wearing my Prada grey stockings because they’re not the type to be hidden underneath a skirt but you delight in showing them off. Another favourite label of mine, Berube also had some lovely cotton ones on their S/S06 catwalk which slouched perfectly and had fanciful bows at the side, giving them a whiff of the 18th century.
If stockings are to venture further into that time period then the next level for stockings to go would be to be ‘clocked’. ‘Clocking’ a stocking means embroidering the ankle of the stocking where a ‘gusset’/wedge has been added to give it shape. I was reminded of clocks when I went to the Textile Museum in Barcelona and spotted these 18th century pale pink stockings with delicate, fine metal clocks.
The luxury of having clocks on your stockings is further confirmed by this excerpt from one of my favourite historical biographies – Aristocrats by Stella Tillyard, an account of the four Lennox sisters in the 18th century:
"Stockings were his particular favourite. They reminded him of the beautiful flesh they would so enticingly cover. Kildare knew that Emily was fond of stockings that had been ‘clocked’ or elabourately embroidered with silk."
Sadly, I doubt designers these days would go to such detailed lengths just to adorn a pair of stockings. Imagine applying such intricate metal embroidery to what essentially is underwear. Since designers are constantly ‘inspired’ by vintage fashion, perhaps one of them will pick up a pair of clocked stockings and reproduce them for us modern consumers.
hi susie. i wonder what kind of headphones you’ve got for your ipod. those big white. is it apple?
Where did you see a pic of me wearing headphones??
I wear the regular iPod earphones but I also have another pair of big ones which I bought in Hong Kong made by Zumreed. But they came in all different colours and patterns. I have the grey and white striped ones. If you can order in Korean you can buy them here:
http://www.headphoneshop.co.kr/shop/shopbrand.html?xcode=066&type=O
thanks for a fast response. you showed a picture a while ago what you have in your bag. like mobilephone, wallet etc.
ok, thats a shame. neither speak or read korean. then i have to keep looking for nice white big headphones.
i bought some clocked stockings from urban outfitters a few years ago–i can’t remember the brand–unf. they don’t stay up.
I bought miu miu fall version of the prada stockings, they have it in 4 colours and they are in wool. they are anyway expensive, but of course cheaper than the prada.
heya!! i havent been on ur site for over 2 weeks (GUILTY) cos ive been moving my old blog (blogrenee.com) to my new one, blogforbeauty.com. just wanted to let you know that!
and also let me just say im glad to be back n i have a lot of catching up to do n im jealous ur went to barcelona!!! 😉
love, renee
I saw something really similiar in H&m in black and beige!
I’m dying for a pair of fun stockings for this fall. I just adore clocked stockings (I’m a huge historical fashion junkie and clocked stockings have always fascinated me!!). Thanks for this post!
I was just thinking: as a modern alternative to clocked stockings, why couldn’t manufacturers use the idea of embellished stockings but print or weave a design into the stocking? Now if it looked nice (not cheap) that would be something cool to jazz up a wardrobe!! 😀
2 words: Lacroix couture.
I think models wore embellished stockings in bright colors (blue, red) at Christian Lacroix couture…but I guess that is couture, which is just about as unattainable for most of us as items locked up in textile museums 🙂
Definitely love stockings though…I really need to stock up for fall!
You can buy all Zumreed products on http://www.pixmania.com