jambière

CONT: Stockings (or hose) or hose tops were ... worn on the lower leg. The hose tops were a derivation of the knitted stockings which emerged not from tradition but convenience. When the toes and heels of a soldier's stockings wore away he would cut them back until eventually he would be left with a saddle where the sole of his stocking once was. When this too wore away he was left with nothing but the upper portion of his stocking, preserved today as hose tops, an item of dress still issued to highland soldiers in the modern Australian army.
OBS: hose top: designation usually used in the plural.