BOTTOM LINE : GETTING HOSED

For many people, afternoon TV seems to be nothing more than a sinkhole of lurid soaps and talk shows, a cistern for just about anything that’s sick about America. But for Debra Andrew, it was the inspiration for a career. “I knew I was on to something from the beginning. All the signs were there,” she says. “I’d turn on the TV during the day and see an endless run of shows featuring cross-dressers, transvestites and husbands who secretly wore their wives’ clothes.”

Sensing an untapped market, Andrew launched De’An Drew Design of Huntington Beach, a mail-order company that takes aim at a true niche: Men who like stockings. Her “Athletic Fit” line features custom-made products tailored to men’s bonier ankles, knobbier knees and, well, other differences.

“Look at this one,” says Andrew as she pulls out an order from a man in Minneapolis. “He’s asking for king-size pantyhose. That tells me he’s a really big man, probably over six feet tall and anywhere from 230 to 260 pounds.”

Asked if there’s anything unusual about her clientele, she’s nothing if not discreet. “My market,” she says, “consists of lovers of fine hosiery.” She will say, though, that at least half her sales are men’s products.

As for competitors, Andrew says that no one else caters to the men’s pantyhose market, and that because of her, men no longer have to squeeze into XXXL ladies’ stockings. “Up until now, anything was better than nothing. But no more. My male clients are willing to pay for nylons that look great and don’t pinch.” And pay they do. Her stockings and pantyhose, specially made for her company in Europe, start at $4.95 and go as high as $24.95 a pair.

There is one problem. “I can’t find any male to model my nylons,” she says. “Not even my husband. He absolutely refuses.”