openwork stocking

plural openwork stockings

1. historicalA type of stocking having decorative gaps in the fabric.

   Perhaps one high heel catching the sunlight, with a bird perched on the end of it; and the other – a stockinged foot, with blood . . . that's dried into the openwork stocking.

   1935, Emlyn Williams, Night Must Fall

   1 more example

   It was a picture of a girl, all legs and dress and eyelashes, a well-developed blonde in black openwork stockings and a low bodice, and this particular blonde peeped over a black lace fan.

   1942, John Steinbeck, The Moon is Down