Mottles of Perfection

At first, everyone assumed that the women with mottled legs were either survivors of atomic attack or carriers of a rare, undoubtedly contagious skin disease. Headwaiters isolated them at restaurants, husbands kept yards away in public and normally affable children (their own) withdrew in horror at the sight (once good and simple) and touch (once soft and silky) of mothers grown suddenly striped, checked or just plain scaly from the knee down. They were only wearing textured stockings, but months went by before even best friends dared come close enough to tell them. By then it was too late: the rage was on, the mottled leg clearly the only one fit to stand on.

Textured stockings are nothing new (noblemen and chorus girls have worn them for centuries), but only in the past year have they become more than an occasional lark for a far-out coed or a conversation piece for a starlet in need. Now, to the ye ye sounds of the Frug and the Monkey and the fashions that dance along (high high boots, short short skirts and cut-out shoes), manufacturers are moving fast to get them on the counters again.

They come in all styles, all sizes, and some colors that even the spectrum hasn't seen for years. Hanes offers a heavy-ribbed version in "Rajah White," Christian Dior a fishnet design in "the ocean's own colors." There are textures that look like flowers, some patterned on art nouveau curlicues, others with clover leaves, diamond shapes.

For bolder types and colder climes, there are versions that don't quit at the garter (those that do, tame enough when standing, reveal flashes of thigh beneath the new short skirts that make sitting down as much a pleasure for male onlookers as it is a comfort for their girls). Mary Grey has textured tights in stretch nylon, Beautiful Bryans in nanny-white lace, and Kayser-Roth promises some misty spring numbers abloom with flowers from tippytoe to waist. The ultimate extension, of course, is the jumpsuit; Capezio has one in white ribbed stretch nylon ($33), Bewitching in sheer black lace ($15). First meant to be worn "under everything from evening dresses to shorts," women soon discovered they were far more effective worn under nothing at all. So, with delight, did men.

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