Support
Stockings can be held up in one of three ways:
- A garter belt (AmE), or suspender belt (BrE), is the most common way of holding up stockings. It is a piece of lingerie worn around the waist like a belt which has "suspenders" or "stays" that clip to the tops of the stockings to hold them in place.
- "Stay-ups" is the second most common means of support. The inside of the top of the stockings has a band (typically silicone) of elastic or highly tractive material that resists slipping down the thigh. Stay-ups have drawbacks because there is no consistent sizing for differences in thigh circumference, resulting in some stockings either falling down or being too tight, leaving red marks and possibly aggravating varicose veins.
- A garter is the least common means of support. It is slipped over the top of the stocking to hold the stocking by essentially clamping it to the leg. These are the garters typically seen at weddings. They have much the same disadvantages as "stay-ups".
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Famous quotes containing the word support:
“American feminists have generally stressed the ways in which men and women should be equal and have therefore tried to put aside differences.... Social feminists [in Europe] ... believe that men and society at large should provide systematic support to women in recognition of their dual role as mothers and workers.”
—Sylvia Ann Hewitt (20th century)
“[They] hired a large house as a receptacle for gentlewomen, who either had no fortunes, or so little that it would not support them. For these they made the most comfortable institution [and] provided [them] with all conveniences for rural amusements, a library, musical instruments, and implements for various works.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)
“... the first reason for psychology’s failure to understand what people are and how they act, is that clinicians and psychiatrists, who are generally the theoreticians on these matters, have essentially made up myths without any evidence to support them; the second reason for psychology’s failure is that personality theory has looked for inner traits when it should have been looking for social context.”
—Naomi Weisstein (b. 1939)