– Last evening my wife and I were guests at a charitable-recognition dinner hosted at the mansion of one of Atlanta’s highest profile athletes.

The event was a fundraiser to help Atlanta’s youth, and the honorees included many of the city’s most recognized athletes, television, radio, and entertainment personalities. In short, the fund raisers billed the event as a “must to be seen”.

The event exceeded my expectations for fare and entertainment. My disappointment was seeing so many beautiful women bare legged. Few – my guess is one of five – were clad in sheer hosiery.

Only one woman in her 20s was among the ladies in hosiery. This beautiful lady was dressed in an above-the-knee silk dress that draped her very fit body elegantly. She wore strappy sandals and very sheer hosiery.

My wife commented during our ride home about the “hard femininity” of so many of those at the event. One guest even attended in the all-black look with black hip-hugging pants.

I found it ironic that so many women wore 3-4 inch slides to enhance their femininity. But, it didn’t seem to remove the “hard edge” look.

I seek feedback. Is the bare-legged look a fashion trend that will come around, or is it another step in the lazy, casual-downing movement? I’m worried I am part of a “damned” generation. I missed the elegance of garters and stockings when I came of age, because micro minis and convenience were being accommodated by tights/pantyhose.

Now it seems convenience is taking what softness was left in femininity. Are those of us on this forum “lost in the past”, and out of touch with reality? Or, are there real signs that fashion will return to elegance?

– Some various thoughts…

1) Increasingly I’m finding that men are dressing better than women! What a turnaround this is. There are still a lot of men wearing classic suit styles, only the cuts and colours are better than ever. And ironically the ‘casual workplace’ look I think has upgraded men’s wear. Dressy casual has ‘cottoned’ on and given men a higher standard for dressing, even if they don’t have to dress so formally – or ‘because’ they don’t have to dress so formally.

2) The bare-legged look seems to grow and grow, and appears also to grow in tandem with the ‘all black’ clothing look. The hosiery industry simply isn’t fighting back.

3) ‘Hard femininity’ – that’s a good term for it. I’m not quite sure what the appeal is here? I think a lot of younger women particularly want to appear tough – in their personality and style, and maybe current fashion trends manifest this.

– “Hard femininity” – that’s an excellent description!

When I walk through the city in the mornings – and Boston is lovely early in the day – I see all these young, attractive women, first with no stockings on their legs and secondly, with the most heinous, unflattering shoes as well! It almost seems as if they’re willing to wear what is popular, without giving a thought to “does it suit my body shape? ”

They seem as if a look from them would cut a jagged hole in you. They don’t have any softness to them, and the clothing nowadays seems to discourage any celebration of womanly curves – the things that drive men wild.

Do you see the interesting paradox? They want to attract attention, but not the kind that will think them soft and weak. As if femininity is a weakness. And then those same women lament that they can’t find a husband.

Women have been looking soft and feminine for generations and still getting stuff done. Do we have to sacrifice one for advances in the other?

I don’t mean to rain on anyone’s parade, but I think this no-hose look is one we’re all going to have to get used to.

– Luckily I live in the midwest where seeing beautiful young women in nylons is apparently more common than on the coasts. Last night, I counted a total of five women in a small bar that were wearing nylons. They were mostly nude in colour. My girlfriend’s were dark tan. There were even some open toed shoes with nylons. Not too bad at all.

– Being in the Atlanta area, and in business, but was not lucky enough to have an invitation to the event, I was saddened to hear about the state of affairs.

Yes, I agree with “hard femininity” and all it brings. I liken it to the backlash of an era when women were treated as frail things, however, that hasn’t happened since the late ’60s (in my opinion). This current generation and their fondness for the bare-legged look with unflattering shoes is hopefully a phase before we turn back toward elegance for women. Admittedly, it is a phase that is strong and has a lot of momentum.

I also think it is “coastal” (both). I have spent a lot of time in Texas and Arizona and even in the summer I saw plenty of attractive and stylish women (all ages) wearing nice hose and proper shoes.

It is sad and damnable that we will probably have this look for a while. Where I disagree is in blaming the look on hosiery companies not fighting back. I blame it on those psycho “fashion designers” who have every model bare legged in every show. They’re telling people this is fashionable.

– I agree. I think the targets for our real wrath should be the fashion designers. But I still scratch my head at the seeming inability of the hosiery industry to mount any type of counter-offensive. Don’t clothing manufacturers have any cachet with designers? Can’t they “pay” anyone to model their clothes? Can’t they “pay” for high-profile product placements in movies, for celebrity guests on talk shows? Can someone please explain this to me? I don’t understand why the hosiery industry rolls over and plays dead.

– You make a very good point I hadn’t considered. Even though the fashion designers are to blame, the hosiery industry doesn’t take a stab at it.

I don’t want to go off on a rant, but I have contacted a large number of hosiery manufacturers and simply put, they aren’t into “rocking the boat”. A number of responses were canned “thank you for contacting us” but an equal number were basically “we are considering it but don’t see it being a move at this time”.

What I took this to mean is simple retail business; “as long as the product is selling, don’t mess with it. ” These companies sell a lot of hosiery already. Spending more and promoting something that isn’t currently popular outside a niche is not something they are willing to do.

– I work with young ladies and yes, even here in New Zealand, I am disgusted by the way that they dress these days. Many of them don’t even know how to put on a skirt or a dress, let alone a pair of stockings. In fact, many girls in the town in which I live in wouldn’t even know what a pair of stockings looked like. Every now and again you will get someone who takes pride in being a lady by throwing away the hideous trousers that they are into these days and puts on a lovely dress or skirt and top, complete with stockings and heels.

– During the ’80s, I was a manager for a furniture manufacturing firm in High Point, NC.

Hosiery firms surrounded High Point, and I was surprised that few marketed their products direct, but simply manufactured to specs for “front companies” that followed fashion trends.

When the company I managed started manufacturing under license for designers, I understood the business model of hosiery firms.

The business model of reacting to fashion trends captured by designers is less risky than marketing your products. It is also more profitable to make exactly what a client orders to spec – no excess inventory.

The majors mostly market to support their retailers, (ie. Hanes co-op ads with their larger retailers) and their advertising contribution is directly tied to the size of the retailer’s order.