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Put A Sock In it! Hosiery in Fiction

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Katie-Ellen

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I don't think I've mentioned hosiery anywhere in my current novel MS ...but I definitely shall in my new one, and wellies.

Article here about hosiery as a significator of background and character in fiction. http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2014/oct/18/stockings-literature-fiction-nylons-tights

It reminded me of the time I went to Pebble Mill, and was interviewed on BBC Radio Three, a programme called Gynn On The Wireless, about...hosiery. I went there to publicise a new exhibition at Leicester's costume museum. I was the curator's assistant and went along to keep her company, as she hated publicity stuff. We got lost, ahh, days before sat-nav, I had to jump out and ask some dustbin men where Pebble Mill was. We arrived late, were met by some agitated person who ran us through what seemed like a mile of corridor and shoved us into the studio. Then the curator turned to me and said she didn't want to do the interview, so in I went.

The exhibition (I had kindly been allowed to name it, and I had very cheesily named it 'Showing A Leg' but it could have been worse I suppose; it could have been 'Sox Appeal' ) featured one of the oldest socks known in existence. Dated, if I remember correctly, about 300 AD. Worn in Egypt it had stripes with bifurcation to allow for a sandal thong. It was knitted, but not knitted as we know it...more like, knotted. This sock has a claim to fame. It was this object, which inspired a designer from famous Leicester hosiers, Corah's, to spark or revive a trend for striped socks with separate digits back in the 80's. Very like this one....





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I love articles like this that trace something through history, and the ways it was used to portray characterization in literature. Thank you for sharing this. :)
 
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