Rebecca A. Foster

Winter is good for one thing I've decided: stockings. I love over-the-knee and thigh-high versions, fun to wear and pair well with skirts, which I also love. (My friend C. got me these black and red striped ones in Australia; very warm, plus I look like a poisonous snake to boot, who wouldn't want that?) I'm always on the lookout for new pairs and sockdreams.com is a treasure trove of stocking funliness. (Yes, I made that word up. You can do that you know.) They have funny, sexy, sheer, thick and wooly, crazy, and pretty stockings of all lengths and styles. I'm taking a picture of my legs to commemorate my marathon training, so trying to determine my favorite photo-finish stockings. Pretty sure I'm going with unfinished fishnets (left) or plain stockings (right, both website model pics), since I have a cute dark denim corset with garter attachments. A black skirt/garters, pale stockings and my kitty-cat shoes would especially make a statement, that statement being ...

Not only is Halloween my friend Candace's birthday (holla!), but I love to dress up in cute little costumes. Kitty Cats, Pocahontas, Angels, Devils, I love them all. Because these days, if you want to dress up, you have to be invited to a Masquerade or a Costume Ball. And really, who throws Masquerade or Costume Balls anymore? No one. So Halloween has become du jour for expressing that playful side we normally can't express outside of college and Halloween (and oh, I used to dress up in some fantastic outfits for going out with my roommates Jill and Brooke and Dana in college. I could almost be my college-self for Halloween). Unless, of course, you are a Playboy Bunny like Bridget on The Girls Next Door ( the guilty pleasure of almost every girl I know ) . Bridget is my favorite because she LOVES dressing up. Every time they go on an excursion or have a party, Bridget has a little costume she wears and because she is a bunny, she can get away with it, even on a random Tuesday. ...

Fishnets have a saucy and minxy reputation, and they do make the wearer feel a bit more sass in the pants just by slipping them on, but here is the dirty little secret about fishnets: really, really comfortable. Regular pantyhose are nylon (silk if you're lucky and/or living in 1927) but fishnets are cotton and lycra, the same material used to make baby doll t-shirts and you know how comfy those are. Plus, the webbing pattern massages your legs when you move, making them relaxing and therapeutic to boot. In the heat of summer, if your legs must be dressed up at all, this is the only bearable alternative. (I've paired them here with my favorite black sandals. I'm 5' 10" in these shoes. I heart them.) A couple of things about fishnet stockings: 1. They come in more colors than just black. I recommend beige with Stila Sun Shimmer Dry Oil for a dressier but still nearly invisible summery look. I recommend chocolate brown for a cozy winter look. Red is for when you real...