Actually, turning to portraits of the period, certain ladies of the highest status seemed to delight in showing off their calves and stockings! If you look up Lavolta in wikipedia, you will see Gloriana in full flight... and also the fullest corroberation of Jane's view of the peacocks of the period showing off their shapely legs etc...
[email protected] <Of course! Men were wearing hose - effectively stockings - and lace in the 1500s and 1600s - whereas we associate stockings with female clothing, and are getting stuck with the "why decorate stockings to be worn under floor length gowns?" in the days when "a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking", stocking fronts would be visible and probably fashionable on the legs of the males of the day. Men dressed to attract, in the same way as peacocks have colourful feathers to attract the female... and what better way to show off one's shapely calves? I suspect where females were concerned, it would only be the prostitutes who showed any leg in those days, and at least in Elizabeth I's reign, they would have been banned by law from wearing lace. - -- Jane Partridge> - To unsubscribe send email to [email protected] containing the line: unsubscribe lace [email protected]. For help, write to [email protected]
