Reinforced Toes
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I grew up in an era when women everywhere wore pantyhose. As a kid I was fascinated by women's feet in nylons and I was especially drawn to reinforced toes on the nylon foot. I still have this fascination today and I was wondering if anyone else loves reinforced toes as much as I do
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Going back to the genesis of it all for me, when I was first permitted to wear pantyhose as a regular clothing item with my skirts and school tunic, I was only aware that pantyhose came in reinforced styles. I don't think I ever saw my mom wearing any style but that. Even in early high school, I never noticed any of the other girls wearing pantyhose that didn't have visible reinforcements in them. I guess I just thought that was how they all were.
That was probably a good thing, as it turned out, anyway. We were pretty hard on our nylons as active rambunctious kids who would run around chasing each other in the school yard regardless of whether we were wearing a skirt or our jeans on any particular day. Half the time, the mary jane dress shoes would get ditched once on the grass, and the chase would be on in our bare pantyhose feet. I can't imagine how many pairs of nylons would have been ruined almost immediately had they been sheer toe/sandal foot styles. You'd have blown right through them the moment you tried to stop or slow down really quickly to change direction. We never really thought about the replacement costs because our parents were still paying for new ones when you got runs in them.
I attended a high school that was what would now be designated as a "historical building" in which the administration would go to lengths to preserve. Even then, because of its age and historical significance, the admin made sure that we wouldn't cause any avoidable damage to the property if they were able to prevent or minimize it. As it was at that point, the gorgeous marble or granite staircases were already grooved from natural wear and tear over the 50+ years of previous use by students constantly having to run up and down the 3 floors of the building for our various classes throughout the day.
To that end, there was a very strictly enforced "no street" or hard soled shoes permitted on the gymnasium floor rule! That also included simply walking along the side the entire length of the gym to get to the door that led us to our gym lockers one level down. We'd have to remove our shoes and carry them from the moment we entered the gym.
Everything was always a competition or done for a laugh when you were a teenager. From the moment you walked through the main gym doors and bent over to take off your shoes and a girl behind you nudged you as you were bent over, so that you'd almost fall forward on your face, the challenge was noted. You'd wait for the right moment and push her back and then she'd chase you to try to even the score. Running full speed to the next door at the other end of the gym that led downstairs to our lockers was fun until you had to stop in a hurry at the other end. The nylons of the day that you wore were crazy slippery underfoot mostly because they were only made of 100% nylon. (no lycra or spandex) Or at least the ones my mom would buy me, probably because they were the cheaper kind. It was a free for all slip and slide with nary a thought given to whether or not we'd put runs in them from the friction of sliding a fairly long distance at the end while trying stop before you hit the door pretty hard at the other end. Thanks goodness for reinforced toes, at least. ALL the girls wore that style, of those who reguarly wore pantyhose regardless of whether you had phys-ed on your schedule that day.
Most girls, if we thought about it, would just wear knee socks on those days to make it much quicker to change before and after class, or we'd try to change into some knee socks in the washroom a period or 2 before the class so as to make it quicker before and after phys-ed class. Nylons were the prefered legwear among most of us every day for school, but they were so delicate that they didn't lend themselves to hastily putting them on or getting them off without a fair risk of damaging them. It wasn't worth the embarrassment of wearing a pair after gym class that you just wrecked due to your own carelessness while hurrying not to be late for your class after gym. It seemed like we were always in a hurry to get to the class we'd have right after phys-ed. We'd never get let out early enough to get dressed again properly and make it on time for the next class.
Even if you did get your clothes on properly and not just half way buttoned up, you still had to carry your shoes through the gym until you got right to the door that led out to the main hallway. Some of our shoes had straps and buckles that you absolutely needed to do up properly or you couldn't really walk in them without them falling off mid stride. Lots of shoes ended up just being carried to the next class. Lots of girls hurried through the halls in our reinforced toe pantyhose. Some girls didn't even bother to put your shoes back on at all even once you reached the classroom since your nylons were a bit dusty and dirty from walking through half the school in them. You didn't want the insides of your shoes to get dirty.
I'm pretty sure my familiarity and dedication to wearing reinforced toe styles primarily for the rest of my life started then and there. That, and the fact that I almost almost wear a pointed toe stiletto high heel style with my outfit(s) makes it an easy choice when not specifically needing to source out some sheer toe hosiery to facilitate an open toe shoe style. I just buy reinforced for the added security/durability and don't really need to give it consideration above what shade, lustre, and whether or not my skirt is a bit too short for a control top style. Life is less complicated, and I actually prefer the style anyway. If your pedicure isn't salon fresh, you can kind of camouflage it decently if you are wearing reinforced toe pantyhose and you need to run around without your shoes over at a friend's house.
