This is the first in a "My Favorite Things" series were we'll explore a few of my personal kinks and proclivities alongside examining the history, semiotics and possibly origins of said kinks. This article with be covering stockings and pantyhose fetishes, bringing me way back to the summer after I graduated from high school and worked in the hosiery department at Nordstrom selling tights, shapewear, pantyhose and thigh highs. I was a sexual virgin at the time but spent way too much money on elegant lingerie and stockings, often from Agent Provocateur or Victoria's Secret. VS often had upscale, on trend pieces modeled after the European mode although it was mass produced and I purchased my first garter belt set. Securing the sheer nude thigh high stockings to my intricate lace garter belt while luxuriating in the soft nylon against my smooth skin made me feel untouchable, like a sexual Goddess. My legs looked sleeker, longer, more powerful yet dainty. How could an item technically considered to be underwear be so constricting yet empowering?
The above stockings are the first ever made in 1937, signaling the beginning of our reliance on synthetics. The Smithsonian reports that nylon stockings were introduced as an alternative to silk but were removed from the market during World War Two and declared a defense material. Ropes, parachutes and dozens of other items were made from nylon leading some to deem it "the fiber that won the war." This association with power and masculinity also informs the societal expectation that women wear pantyhose in the workplace. I was introduced to the idea that it was quite unseemly for a dame to strut around, legs bare for all the world to see. We were forced to wear pantyhose/stockings even in extreme heat and humidity but it actually ended up being beneficial as I've always had poor circulation and discovered compression pantyhose that made my sometimes 12 hour shifts bearable.
The idea that bare legs are overly sexual and not as powerful as pantyhose covered intrigued me. Was it because they covered our nether regions? Underwear wasn't enough? I suppose bare flesh is too much for American puritanical sensibilities. Women had to don nylons in order to enter the male dominated business world and find societally accepted economic power. Yet I find stockings to be more sexual/feminine than a pair of "slutty" bare legs, which would seemingly make the stockings wearer less powerful.
Stockings are quite a versatile sensual tool: I have tied up suitors with my thigh highs, gagged them, played out forced feminization sessions and they're sometimes part of foot fetish sessions, although rarely. Foot guys like to see bare, rippled feet and nylons constrict this. Some suitors enjoy worshipping my legs, sitting at my feet and slowly making their way upwards, kissing, touching, smelling. That's another popular niche: sweaty, dirty pantyhose. Some suitors purchase my used pantyhose. Some simply like to watch a woman take them off. It's about texture for some and they prefer fishnets. Color also plays a big role with most suitors preferring either nude or sheer black stockings. Men who enjoy occasionally surrendering their power often find their thrills in the emasculating constriction of stockings. It's a way to explore gender and eroticicism.
The Guardian asserts that nylons carry "associations with femininity, fetishism, domesticity, dominance, smut, suburbia, sexual freedom, “standard” skin colours and body types, hosiery offers a rich seam for exploration" for artists, many of whom have experimented with nylons since their inception in the 1930s. The above is a photo by Daido Moriyama in which the erotic gaze is barely contained. Calves constricted and controlled, ready to burst at the seams. Pin up and boudoir photography features stockings quite frequently and with the recent revival of pinup styles, I notice many more FS provider wearing them with garter sets. In the past, stockings were more likely to be found only in the strictly fetish/domme community.
Some sources state that this is an extremely common kink and I tend to agree. Even vanilla clients will ask me to wear a particular pair of stockings (that they've purchased for me, of course 😘) but an Italian study says otherwise. Nature magazine reported on a study of online fetish groups and only 12% of the sample population had a preference for underwear (pantyhose were included in the underwear category). I think that's hogwash, the study must be flawed. Or maybe my love of stockings and pantyhose attracts suitors who have this kink?
If you like supporting SWs, please leave a comment on my Twitter www.x.com/roseblazebby (my account is search suggestion banned so you have to put the link into your browser. Or when you search for my username @roseblazebby on X, just be sure to watch out for a reply someone makes to me and click on my username) And follow my NOT search suggestion banned account @thenycmuse www.x.com/thenycmuse
Sources: