Stocking Filler

"I can't believe there was once a time when women wore garter belts all the time, not just to be sexy, then some guy invented panty hose. That guy's a dick! What was he thinking?!"

- Stand up comedian Mitch Fatel

We all know what Ms. Fanservice wears to accentuate certain assets: the corset. But what if she wants to show She's Got Legs as well?

Well, that's where Stocking Filler comes in. We have fishnet stockings, knee high stockings, and, of course, the ever popular garter.

For works prior to the 1950s, this was something of an Enforced Trope, as American and European women simply wore stockings every day as part of their regular underwear. However, due to the strict moral standards of the day (of which the Hays Code is exemplar), scenes depicting the full ensemble with garters and all were uncommon in American movies (though more frequent in European films). These days, they're considered inconvenient for daily wear (much like the corset was decades before) but still frequently encountered for Fan Service purposes or as a throwback to the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Expect the Femme Fatale to be dressed this way, and very likely to use the garters as a hiding place for money, concealed weapons or a flask.

Most often revealed in a Lingerie Scene. Part of Stock Underwear. Not to be confused with Silk Stalkings, an early '90s TV show (though there were several Stocking Filler scenes in that show), nor Filler, which may or may not include stockings.

See also: Zettai Ryouiki - this is when Stocking Filler goes higher than the knee, and worn with a shorter skirt. See also also: Playboy Bunny, for whom stockings or hose are an essential element of the outfit. Compare Victoria's Secret Compartment for another use of underwear to conceal objects.

Anime and Manga

 * Mahou Sensei Negima: Asuna and Setsuna during the Budokai mini-arc, as part of their Instant Cosplay Surprise Panty Fighter outfits.
 * Yumie from Hellsing, who wears garters under her nun habit.
 * Female Ranma in the Martial Arts Dining arc of Ranma One Half. She had been forced into wearing antique French clothing (and, for some reason, a steel corset) by her opponent's instructor. So, for training, she usually doffed the dress and wore just the corset, women's panties, and a garter belt with stockings.
 * Faye in Cowboy Bebop wears garters all the time.
 * All of the Mew Mews from Tokyo Mew Mew (the only exception being Mew Ringo from the games) wear a garter on one of their legs.
 * Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt gives us Stocking, who can turn her stockings into katanas.
 * M.M. and Adelheid Suzuki from Katekyo Hitman Reborn both wear stockings with suspenders.

Comic Books

 * Zatanna gets this treatment (combined with Of Corsets Sexy) for her trademark fishnets in Seven Soldiers mini-series.
 * Orgasm Lass from XX Xenophile.
 * Little Ego often ends up wearing a garter belt, stockings and nothing else.
 * A traditional element of Lady Death's outfit. If it can be called that.
 * Surprisingly common in "spicy" comic strips of the 30s and 40s, even turning up in the Mandrake dailies at one point. On the other side of the Atlantic, Jane was boosting home front morale in the traditional manner.
 * In Scott Pilgrim, Envy Adams puts on stocking on the last volume of the series.

Film

 * Angelina Jolie in Mr. and Mrs Smith hid knives in her garters.
 * Moulin Rouge
 * Lori's introductory scene in The Man Who Knew Too Little.
 * Worn by Pushkin's mistress in The Living Daylights. James Bond rips her dress off to provide a distraction when Pushkin's bodyguard crashes into the room and it does the job quite nicely.
 * Another James Bond example: Paris Carver in Tomorrow Never Dies.
 * James Bond film Never Say Never Again. The Vamp Fatima Blush has a victim hooked on heroin to force him to obey her. She carries a hypo filled with the drug in a garter belt (under a nurse's uniform no less), and exposes it while taking out the hypo. On YouTube starting at 1:05.
 * Both Silk Spectres get variations of this in the Watchmen movie, although in Sally's case it's justified by the fact that pantyhose weren't yet common in the 1950s.
 * The original Silk Spectre does wear stockings and suspenders in the comic.
 * The senior girls in the St Trinian's movies (as part of their Sexy Schoolwoman uniforms).
 * In The Graduate, the older seductress Mrs. Robinson is seen wearing garters. (The still of Anne Bancroft removing her stockings while Dustin Hoffman watches is iconic.)
 * In the 1932 film Red-Headed Woman, when Lil (Jean Harlow) is seducing her boss, she shows him that he put a small picture of him to her garter. Later, when he wants to break up with her, she shows her stockings again to prove that she's removed the picture.
 * Extremely briefly appears in Scary Movie 2, when the girls attempt to parody Charlie's Angels and screw it up.
 * Layer Cake. Before sleeping with the protagonist, a girl slips off her normal underwear in the bathroom and changes into black stockings and suspenders.
 * Silk Stockings has an extended transformation scene showing Cyd Charisse donning the titular garments.
 * Actually, we don't see any garters/garter belts; this was during the Hays Code era where lingerie was considered highly risque (it was even mentioned by name as a no-no in the Code).
 * Sean Young, during her character's limousine sex scene with Kevin Costner's character in No Way Out.
 * Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau in Viva Maria.
 * Gina Lollobrigida in La Donna Piu' Bella Del Mondo (Beautiful But Dangerous).
 * Catherine Deneuve, in her sex scene with Gerard Depardieu in The Last Metro.
 * Daniela Bianchi, in From Russia With Love (to be precise, she wasn't wearing garters, but black silk stockings rolled above the knees; this isn't clearly seen in the scene as released, but an alternate version was shot - there are several promotional photos from that version - which clearly show her exposed, stockinged legs).
 * Jayne Mansfield, in It Happened in Athens.
 * Sophia Loren, in Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (and also in Pret-a-Porter (Ready to Wear)).
 * Jeannette MacDonald (!) in the Ernst Lubitsch version of The Merry Widow.
 * Joan Collins in The Bitch.
 * Jennifer Connelly in The Rocketeer.
 * Helen Mirren in The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.
 * Olga Georges-Picot in the Woody Allen film Love and Death.
 * Sylvia Kristel in Lady Chatterley's Lover.
 * Ursula Andress in The Fifth Musketeer.
 * The Jean Renoir movie French Can-Can.
 * Ornella Muti in Swann in Love.
 * Laura Antonelli in Till Marriage Do Us Part.
 * Many of the low-budget "erotic thrillers" of the early 1990's; actresses such as Shannon Whirry and Shannon Tweed often had Stocking Filler scenes in those movies.
 * While actual Stocking Filler scenes were few and far between in the Production Code era, there were numerous "cheesecake" pinup photographs of starlets wearing garters.
 * Maggie DuBois (Natalie Wood) in The Great Race shows her leg in a silk stocking to her editor to get him to allow her to cover the titular race.
 * The 1958 film version of Cat On a Hot Tin Roof shows Maggie Pollitt (Elizabeth Taylor) changing her stockings at the beginning.
 * Nancy Allen in black stockings and garters in Dressed To Kill. Holy crap.
 * Needless to say, the Carry On franchise made frequent use of the stocking filler during the early 60s, although the trope fell out of fashion as the miniskirt grew in popularity.
 * Sweet Pea in Sucker Punch.
 * Lily (Mila Kunis) in Black Swan is shown wearing black garters in her sex scene with Nina (Natalie Portman).

Literature
"Henry: Stockings and garters. My kind of girl."
 * Clare in The Time Travelers Wife.


 * Sisterhood series by Fern Michaels: Maggie Spritzer wears stockings, as Razor Sharp shows.

Live Action TV

 * Sarah hides knives in her garter in the first episode of Chuck.
 * Greek, "The Great Cappie": Casey hides a bottle of "illegal" hooch on the garter belt of her '20s flapper dress.
 * As mentioned above, several episodes of Silk Stalkings.
 * Virtually every female character ever in The Benny Hill Show. Several times an episode in some cases; most frequently during the "chase" scene towards the end.
 * Original Avenger girl Cathy Gale carried her gun in a garter holster. Her successor Purdy (Joanna Lumley) of The New Avengers was a 'stocking and suspender girl' despite the invention of pantyhose.

Video Games

 * Tear Grants from Tales of the Abyss owns garters that not only hold her red stockings up, but also holster throwing knives under her dress.
 * Excellen Browning of Super Robot Wars sports barely visible garters for her casual wear. While it seems like an aesthetic design, it makes sense when you realize she's the series' Ms. Fanservice.
 * Belle of Crystal Bearers.
 * The Sims 3 always had stockings available (pantyhose, thigh-high and knee-high) but the Late Night expansion pack additionally introduced "sleepwear" with garters.
 * Grim Fandango makes a point of Meche taking a damaged stocking off in one puzzle.

Western Animation

 * Re Boot: Hexadecimal, after Season 2, has garters added to her outfit. (In her Virus form, the garters appear to be attached to her corset, while in her  form, she wears a separate garter belt with a Showgirl Skirt attached.)
 * Warner Brothers got in on the act during the early forties, when the Private Snafu taught the troops a few things they never learned in school.
 * Speaking of which, the can-can was always a popular subject in old-school animation, even during the Code era. Many cartoons of the period featured risque gags which never would have made it past the censors otherwise.

Comic Books

 * Both Zatanna and Black Canary have fishnets as part of their regular uniform (though Canary has changed a bit, going back and forth to having regular stockings/spandex and back to fishnets).
 * The villainesses Hazard and Magpie too.
 * Orgasm Lass from XX Xenophile.

Film

 * Every major character at the end of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
 * Alicia Witt, in one scene in Cecil B Demented, wears torn fishnets, and has "Andy Warhol" tattooed on her thigh.
 * Too many classic-era Hollywood musicals and comedies to list. Some examples:
 * Jane Russell in Son of Paleface.
 * Marilyn Monroe in Bus Stop.
 * Kay Kendall, Mitzi Gaynor and Taina Elg in Les Girls.
 * For that matter, Mitzi Gaynor, Cyd Charisse or just about any other dancer in a movie in which they danced.
 * Amber in Sucker Punch.

Western Animation
"Note: Fishnets are rarely seen in cartoons because they're difficult to animate without the Unmoving Plaid problem, though a few examples do exist."


 * In The Simpsons season 15 episode "Bart After Dark", Belle, the owner of the burlesque house, wears fishnets, along with spike-heeled shoes. At one point, she pulls up her skirt and crosses her legs, showing her sharply-clad legs.
 * In a later episode "The Cartilage Family", one of the hookers at the SLeep EAZY motel.
 * Re Boot: Hexadecimal, again; with fishnets peeking out from above her boots in her post-Season 2 Virus form.
 * Saffi on Jimmy Two-Shoes
 * In Justice League Unlimited, Green Arrow is convinced to join the team when he sees Black Canary put on her fishnet stockings.
 * Sedusa from The Powerpuff Girls.

Anime and Manga

 * Mahou Sensei Negima: Chachamaru, all the time -- even when bathing. It's implied that it's part of her "skin".
 * Kneesocks is Stocking's Evil Counterpart in Panty and Stocking With Garterbelt.

Music

 * Thigh High Nylons, by Mustard Plug, is all about this.
 * Stockings, by Suzanne Vega