Socks Appeal WOMEN'S APPARE SIZES 14W-26W • alterations • gift certificates 28927 SOUTHFIELD ROAD • AT 12 MILE LATHRUP VIL z • 424 - 8767 4 f / PEli'MANEN T A K A t last...permanent eyeliner, eyebrows, lip liner & eyelash curl. Natural-looking, safe, laving beauty ha.s never been easier! ($350 and up) CALL (313) 855-0476 TODAY! 80 STYLE • C I C INSTITUT DI.: How's your socks life? Men: are you still wearing those dull old gray, brown or navy blue socks? You're out of date! Get with it! These are the '90s! If you are wearing the new pat- terned hosiery, you're hip, but don't get too smug. You're just doing what your dad and grandad did. Nothing is new in fashion, you know. Everything is recycled. Don Young is an eyewitness to the patterned hosiery. Young is menswear buyer for Mark Shale, a chain of 10 upscale stores in the Midwest. "Patterned dress hosiery is a busi- ness that in the last four years has just been explosive," he said. "It's doub- led our hosiery business. "But basically, this is nothing new. My father wore patterned dress hos- iery: his father wore patterned dress hosiery. Most men prior to the 1950s did. Then Orlon came in. It was next to impossible to do a patterned dress sock out of Orlon. So patterned socks, especially for dress, just disap- peared." Then, about five years ago, fancy hosiery with socks appeal started showing up again, thanks to new technology. A generation that thought it was on to something new started scooping them up. Crain's, a business newspaper out of Chicago, says Chicagoans are a tad fashion-cautious and didn't jump on the bandwagon until last year. But now these hot socks are hot. Crain's says patterned hosiery by high- fashion designers such as Perry Ellis, Christian Dior and Georgio Armani surged 35 percent this year. Young thinks at least 50 percent of the guys out there are wearing pat- terned dress hosiery. "The guy that first started out four or five years ago wearing a little pin dot on his sock may now be wearing a bold geomet- ric or paisley pattern," Young said. "He keeps progressing, getting a lit- tle more daring." Some of the patterned hosiery sports subdued patterns, but some patterns can get pretty wild. Young says the wild stuff should be saved for sportswear.