Fig. 72.—A stocking with clocks.
The vestige in modern stockings to which allusion has been made is very often present, and takes the form of the ornament which we know as a “clock.” The name signifies a gusset, and in modern socks and so on, which are woven or knitted all in one piece, no such arrangement is to be found. Stockings, however, like those at first worn by Queen Elizabeth, and used at least by American settlers until the year 1675, were made up from pieces of cloth. In these there would be seams down the sides, and it is possible that where the ornamental lines meet in Figure [72] there may have been a gusset. In any case, it is evident that the intention of the clock was to hide the side seams.
Of recent years, when ladies have most sensibly adopted short skirts, the clock has developed into a series of embroidered patterns which cover the front of the foot and ankle. The parentage of these is quite evident from the shape, which is shown in Figure [73].
Fig. 73.—An embroidered stocking showing the further evolution of the clock (date 1900).
Fig. 74.—An open-work stocking of 1905.
This ornamentation has been carried still further, though it is not produced in the same way. The patterns, instead of being embroidered, are the result of perforations, or, in more technical language, “open-work,” and the background which shows up the design is no longer the material of the stockings, but the skin of their fair wearers. (See Figure [74].)