Sheer Delight

Few things irritate a woman more--or more frequently--than a run in her stocking. But women have been forced to live with their runs for the sake of fashion sheerness--and the perishability of hose is the boon of manufacturers. Runless stockings have been developed, but few women like the seams that come with them. Last week this feminine plague at last seemed on its way out. Two hosiery companies are racing neck and neck to be first on the market with stockings that are both seamless and runproof.

"This is the death knell of the hosiery business," said President Gordon Hanes of Hanes Hosiery Mills Co.. as he announced his company's new "Sheerloc" stocking at a luncheon of fashion editors.

But he was smiling when he said it; though a new knitting process makes the stockings runproof, it does not make them holeproof. Said a Hanes executive cheerfully: "No stocking lasts forever." "Foreva" is, in fact, the name announced by Chadbourn Gotham Inc., Hanes's competitor, for its new runless and seamless stockings.

The runproof hose will not be marketed for two or three months. Hanes's price will be $1.75 (v. $1.35 for an ordinary pair of hose); Chadbourn Gotham has not yet set a price. Though women may be rescued from such agonies as the discovery of a run on their way to a party, they will pay another price for the improvement: the new stockings will be noticeably meshier.

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