Clothing Definitions — definitions of garments and clothing terms from Apparel Search
Hosiery describes undergarments worn directly on the feet and legs. The types of hosiery are socks, stockings and pantyhose, and the wider category reaches to related leg garments such as tights, leggings and body stockings. This page explains what hosiery covers, how socks, stockings and pantyhose differ from each other in coverage and in how they are held up, and the construction terms used across the category.
Hosiery describes undergarments worn directly on the feet and legs.
Learn more about hosiery in our fashion products section.
Hosiery is classified by how much of the leg each garment covers and how it stays up. Socks are the shortest: ankle, crew and knee lengths covering the foot and part of the leg, held up by their own elastic. Stockings cover the whole leg to the thigh as two separate garments, which is why they need support — historically garters attached to a girdle or corset, later a suspender belt, and in hold-up styles a silicone-lined elastic band at the top. Pantyhose joined the two stockings to a brief, removing the need for any support and becoming the standard form in the later twentieth century. Tights follow the pantyhose pattern in heavier, opaque knits, while leggings extend the same construction to a footless garment worn as outerwear as often as underwear.
Construction is knitting throughout. Hosiery is machine-knitted as a shaped tube, fine enough to fit the leg closely, and its fineness is traditionally expressed in denier, the weight measure of the yarn: low-denier stockings and pantyhose are sheer, higher deniers are opaque. Nylon became the standard hosiery fibre in the twentieth century, usually blended with elastane so the knit stretches over the calf and recovers at the ankle. Fit depends on that stretch, which is why hosiery sizing is given by height and weight ranges rather than by shoe size alone, except for socks, which are sized to the foot. Care follows the fineness: sheer hosiery snags and ladders easily because a single broken thread in the knit runs the length of the leg, and it is washed gently and kept from rough surfaces. The category's neighbours in this section — leotards, unitards and catsuits — share the close knitted fit but cover the torso, while hosiery proper stops at the feet and legs that define it.
Selection is a matter of matching those construction choices to use. Sheer, low-denier hosiery is dresswear, easily snagged and bought for appearance; opaque, higher-denier tights and knit socks are working garments, bought for warmth and wear. Fit matters more in hosiery than in most clothing because the knit is in constant tension: too short a stocking or pantyhose leg pulls and ladders, and too tight a sock top marks the leg, so makers grade hosiery in sizes by height, weight and foot size together. Reinforced toes and heels, gussets in pantyhose, and cotton-rich blends in socks are the standard construction answers to the places hosiery actually fails, at the toe, the heel and the waistband.
Hosiery describes undergarments worn directly on the feet and legs.
The types of hosiery include socks, stockings and pantyhose, with related garments such as tights, leggings and body stockings in the wider category.
Stockings cover each leg separately and are held up by garters, a suspender belt or elastic tops. Pantyhose combine both legs and a brief into a single garment, so nothing separate is needed to hold them up.