Garter

Underwear accessory used to hold up the stockings. It derives from the French jarretière, and it indicates both an ancient symbol of devotion to an institution or a noble family and the most modern and shocking element of women’s erotic underwear. You only have to think about the popular tradition of the red garter that women wear on New Year’s Eve and then give away as a gift. It belongs both to the male and female wardrobe. Today, it is almost exclusively worn by women. There are very, very few gentlemen who wear garters any more. The accessory consists of a band which holds up the stockings, worn on the upper part of each leg or under the knee, depending on the stocking’s length. The term first appears in the 800s in the writings of Eginard. While describing the clothing of Charlemagne, he speaks about “garters” that hold up the monarch’s stockings. It has been present in men’s clothing since about 1200. In the mid 1300s, after an incident at a court ball hosted by the Countess of Salisbury, Edward III of England designated the garter as the symbol of the most prestigious honor given by the British Crown, the Order of the Garter, at the same time uttering the famous motto that is still present on the royal coat of arms: “Honni soit qui mal y pense.” Used in the following centuries to hold up both men’s and women’s stockings, the garter began to decline in use at the end of the 1800s. This was due at first to the advent of women’s suspender belts, then the popularity of tights and support stockings.”