History of Sheer Hosiery

Welcome to:-

History of Sheer Hosiery

Discovering the fascinating history of sheer hosiery.

Writing this history started several decades ago as I have always been interested in industrial and miliary history , after reading about how nylons and silk stocking if available were very short in wartime Britain.

This made me think about what ladies wore in respect to their hosiery during this period and also in the decades before nylon was invented.

I soon realised it was not only about ladies stocking and tights also one of research and innovation which lead to the hosiery we are used to seeing been worn today

Although there is a lot of hosiery history available for any one to read , I wanted to firstly present this in chronological order apart from one writing one which is suitable to be read by any one from any age group. The history of Sheer Hoisery can be read

Hopefully my presentation of the history of sheer hosiery addressed this and you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Firstly A Definition of Hosiery :-      

Hosiery refers to garments worn directly on the feet and legs. It includes items like socks, stockings, and tights which are worn by both women and men.

 The term originated as a collective term for products associated with a hosier, who is either a maker or seller of these items

 Hosiery, is a term used to designate all manufactured textile fabrics which in their process of manufacture have been built on the principle of looping or a loop structure. 

The origin of the term is obvious, being derived from the word " hose "  this being one of the earliest garments made by the process of knitting .

 While tights and stocking forms one of the staples of the trade, these are only one of a very numerous and diversified range of applications of the entire industry. 

Hosiery is often thought of today as been only a women item of clothing  men's socks also come the umbrella of hosiery.

Using Ai to generate a automatic defintion for hoisery ....

"Hosiery refers to a category of clothing that includes garments worn directly on the feet and legs, such as socks, stockings, tights, and pantyhose. These items are typically made from materials like nylon, cotton, wool, or blends of these fibers, and they come in various styles and thicknesses to suit different purposes and fashion needs".

 A quick look at very early hosiery.

Going back into pre-history:- Animal skins were first used, these skins were bound to the foot and leg to protect them for the environment and to keep person warm.

There are references to the term or noun hosiery in the works of Hesiod, which is said to be one of the uses of the word.
The Romans are said to have used leather or cloth in forms of strips to cover their lower body parts.

Woven cloth came next, this was cut and crudely stitched to fit the shape of a person legs producing a very ill-fitting garment, these were often called (Cut Cup's) probably tied in some way at the top to hold it in place worn by both men and women.

It started with the development of the stocking frame.

This was really the first big innovation in hosiery making since the start of knitting, also the first mechanical machine in the textile industry. 

Invented by  William Leeof Calverton near Nottingham in 1589, it is said the William Lee who was a Vicar studied his fierce whilst she was knitting and worked out how the needles moved he then translated this into a mechanical movement which a machine could reproduce.

The first machines used wool with 8 needles producing a course woollen garment which only needed to be sewn down the back to produce the stockings, mechanical knitting was referred to as framework knitting.

William Lee tried to get a patent for his new machine from Queen Elizabeth I which she refused; it's thought on the ground that this machine would harm the employment security of the UK hand knitting industry.

William then made further improvements to his frame adding another 12 needles by 1598 these frames could also knit silk stockings taking this new and improved machine back to Queen Elizabeth for another patent submission which was again turned down.
Disappointed with the reception which his knitting frame receive in the UK William with his brother James moved to France with 9 frame workers and 9 frames setting up the frames Rouen (France ) where they started producing stocking.

William Lee Died in France in 1614 and his brother James returned to London where he sold off most of the Frames, then moved to Thoroton, near Nottingham.

Lee's apprentice John Aston (or Ashton) who originally was a miller by profession added some more improvements known as the " Divider" and slowly establishing an East Midlands as the second centre for frame knitting in England.

The Worshipful Company of Framework Knitter.

Was one of the Livery Companies in the City of London incorporated by Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, on 13th June 1657, reissued as a Royal Charter in 1663. There are about 108 of these guild or Livery Companies covering many trades some of their original can be traced back to medieval periods, there purpose was to bring together people from the same trade to help and protect them and maintain standards within the industry. The Worshipful Company of Framework Knitters is still active today with its own web site. www.frameworkknitters.co.uk/

The next addition to the knitting frame was carried out in 1758 by Jedediah Strutt who introduced an attachment for the frame called the 3 "Derby rig which would allows the frame to also knit cotton making even finer stockings.

Most frames were used by individuals and family concerns as a cottage industry, around 1812 it is estimated that there was over 25,000 frames in use, most frames were not always own by the frame workers a lot frames would be leased.

The Frame knitting industry originally started in London alongside the Protestant Huguenots silk weavers who had come over from France to avoid persecution from the Catholic in the 16th and 17th Centuries setting up in Spitalfields London, which soon became known as 'weaver town'. The frame worker and the hosiery industry were now moving always from London and becoming based in the West Midlands.

By the end of the nineteenth century most of these frame working would slowly die out because they were uneconomic to operate as the larger mill took over and could use the principle of mass production to produce even cheaper cotton isle and wool stocking. Just a very small number of workers would remain in independent use until the end of the century.

In 1771,Richard Arkwright installed the water powered knitting frame in his cotton mill at Cromford, Derbyshire, on the River Derwent this was a predecessor to one powered by horses which when out of use because it require too many horses to power it and they had to be changed frequently, this was the start of the industrial revolution (1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840) which changed the way many things were manufactured.

Silk hosiery manufacture was slightly different and would also remain in smaller manufactures for some time to come.

Hosiery has been worn equally by men.

If you look backwards into fashion history you see that men also wore long cotton or silk stocking which finished above their knee britches, as shown in this drawing of Richard Sackville 1589 -1624 with his stocking tied with a ribbon to hold them in place.

Britches started to lengthened from around 1800 like the ones worn by John Hancock in 1793 and became less flamboyant, these slowly evolved into what we know as trousers today,  the need for wearing long stocking decreased for men because their legs were now covered by the trouser legs and hosiery shortened and become more like long sock which men are more familiar with today.

For ladies like Rose-adla-de-ducreux her stocking would be very similar to the gentleman's made in silk been tied with a ribbon slightly above her knee.

Lady Rose's servants and the majority of ladies around this time would still have to wear wool stocking of every day and maybe if they were very lucky they would have a pair of cotton isle stockings just for the Sunday best, as with all nice lades at this time had long floor length dresses you would not be able to see their feet and stockings of course wear today

Victoria ladies and there stockings.

Victorian stocking although unseen were not always as plain as you would think they are.

 

This 1880 advert shows some of the designs of stockings which were available at the time for lady.

 Stockings were made in both cotton and silk and as the advert says available in all desirable colours yellow, lavender, gold and even sky blue, some were made in drop stitch and others ribbed cotton lisle embroidered on the leg.

Why an alternative to real silk would be desirable.

Real silk has always been very expensive partly because the main producers were in the far east and North America and the silk had to be transported over long distances, by the end of the Nineteen century several other factors started to effect the cost of silks and pushing the price up even further.

 a) The silkworm disease in Europe (1855 -1870).

b) The Taiping Rebellion in China (1850-1864).

So there was great interest in finding a cheaper alternative to natural silk and of course for anyone who was successful in developing one would clearly be a handsome profit to be made.

Viscose - Is the new wonder fibre.

Viscose was discovered by Joseph Wilson Swan in 1850 English chemist who was working on developing the electric light bulb. Swan needed a fine fibre for the filament of his new electric light bulb; he first came up with a fibre made from cellulose nitrate which is derived from the naturally occurring cellulose made from extracted wood pulp.

Hannah Swan became interested in this fibre and started using it for her crochet work, Hannah called this fabric 'artificial silk'.

Unfortunately cellulose nitrate was not found to be a practical solution especially for Joseph and his electric bulb because viscose was slightly explosive after more work in a slightly different direction he found that a carbonized bamboo filament had significantly better results for him.

Work did continued on this new artificial silk fibre by other scientist Count Hilaire de Chardonnet  (a French chemist) achieving the first full scale production of Viscose in 1889, his fabrics of artificial silk caused a sensation at the Paris Exhibition.

Two years later he built the first commercial rayon plant at Besancon, France, however his cloth was also slightly inflammable and sales of it started to declined when the public realized this flammability.
Until three British inventors, Charles Fredrick Cross,Bevan and Beadle, patented a way of making a safe and money flammable artificial silk in 1892.

Apart from fabric Cross, Bevan and Beadle, tried to make solid objects out of viscose like umbrella handles with which turned out to be too brittle, further development made it possible to spin the fibre into thread for embroidery and trimmings probably this work was carried out by Courtaulds textile company. The term "spin" is often used in the context of Viscose , this is not the same technique as the in the textile mill with cotton or wool.

The British patents for artificial silk were taken over by Courtaulds in 1904 for approximately ?25,000, they produced the first commercial fibre in 1905 in a factory on the outskirts of Coventry (UK).

A new century and a change in women fashions.

With the sad death of Queen Victoria in 1901 fashions would now starting changing the Victorian hour glass silhouette was going out of fashion been replaced with the "S-bend" or "S-curve" silhouette which in reality would not as survivor as in this advertising illustration for corsets suggests.

The ladies of Britain now had to play catch-up to the continental ladies with their fashions and the new exciting styles coming out of Paris and other European capitals.

Fashion had now taken on a whole new look based on Orientalism with its soft drapery, and bold prints. The lines of Russian peasant costume appeared in hip length tunics, a style that lasted throughout the next few years. The hem line at the start of the twentieth century was still at the floor and would remain there for around the next 10 years. There really was not any reason for this to change at this time the fashion designers were concentrating more on the silhouette, textures and patterns of the fabrics than the hem line and stockings were still unseen.

Artificial silk goes into full production.

The first artificial silk stocking is reported to have been made in 1910 although it seems more likely that full production did not start until a year or so latter. There were three different method of producing artificial silk the American Viscose Corporation at this time used the cheapest method at their production plant.

Sheer stocking are now a lot more affordable

For the next few years there is little information available about ladies hosiery of this period and not many example's Designer's and couturiers first raised hemlines several inches above the floor in 1915 when they created the war time crinoline" this was still a full skirt just slightly shortened .

Many women greeted this new look with pleasure and saw it as more practical solution which better suited to a time especially as a lot of women were now having to entering the workforce at unprecedented levels to replace the men who were now volunteering to join the armed forces and go to the front in France and Belgium.

The higher hemlines exposed a gap between the tip of the boot and a skirt them. The look distracted from the overall appearance of an outfit, so the high button boots of the past were abandoned. Not only did women's hemlines rise to mid-calf length, but more exciting yet, ladies wore these shorter styles with sexy heeled shoes with that featured a slight curve and flesh toned silk stockings,
Not that high button boots and corsets were not totally abandoned instead these style give ladies greater flexibility for comfort.

The new Spirella corset offered a greater range of movement than the old fashioned type and purported to improve posture to benefit overall health.

By 1915 ladies were starting to wear sleeveless dresses and as this advert on the right says that fashion say that underarms must be as smooth as the face.

With the hem line now going up it and the legs now showing it would not be long before pressure from advertisements would also lead to ladies shaving their legs and thus allowing them to start wearing increasingly sheerer stockings.

After the armistice, November 11, 1918, there was great relief that the war was over recovery by society was difficult as there was also a underlining sadness for all the people who were lost, and now dearly missed , combined with the devastating effects of the 1918 flu pandemic which almost brought the world to its knees people just  felt crushed and cynical as they moved into the peace time a new feeling of freedom mixed with disillusionment combined to create a new kind of culture - a live for today, devil-may-care society that led into the roaring 20's and the distinctive look, sound, and fashion of the jazz age.

Dupont start to make silk (artificial silk).

Dupont (a large us chemical company) became very interested in artificial silk as they had initially missed out on this product ten years before, there first attempted to enter this market was to buy out the American Viscose Company, the AVC offered Dupont 60% of their company for $30 million, Dupoint thought this was too much as American Viscose Company total assists were only values at $10 million.

Dupont finally entered into an agreement with a French company Comptoir Des Textiles Artificiels who was the largest European manufacturer of Rayon at the time with plants in France Italy, Belgium and Switzerland who transferred there owner patents to make artificial silk by the Count Hilaire de Chardonnet method over to Dupoint in return for $4 million.

Dupoint then sets up a USA company which is  called Dupont Fibre silk company.

  Ladies now decided they had to shave their legs.

Ladies started shaving they legs mainly for aesthetic reason when the hem line started rising around the time of WW1, initially they would have use men's razors then razors especially designed for ladies came onto the market. The first adverts for ladies razors appeared in around 1922 or 1924 (other dates do crop up for this even like 1925 and 1926).

This is an early advert for a ladies razor

A 1920's ladies safety razor.

Artificial silk has its name changed to Rayon.

Manufactures thought that the word "artificial was not very appealing name , a committee from the United states department of commerce and various commercial associations was set up to decide upon a new name they first hold a competition with a very large prize for the time of $1,000 for the best name of the 10,000 entries no one name was thought to be right.

Another fashion trend started by the flappers was to decorate their stocking by painting small motives on the leg, some would go as far as having their boyfriends face pointed on both knee like this lady on the right has had done.

So the committee decided to choose their own word, rayon taken from the French for "rays of light" so from 1924 "artificial silk" was known as rayon ,like all names there is sometime a sleigh turn certainty about why they decided upon a name it could also be rayon(sun = ray,  on = cotton) accounting for 70% of the sales of stocking. Dupont fibre silk company decided to rename the company to the Dupont rayon company in 1925.

Hosiery really came to the forefront in the Twenties

Although we think of the roaring 20's was all about flappers (the young fashionable ladies) wearing short dresses and showing off their stocking tops or rolling down there stockings that was only a small part of the story

Many other designs were also popular like clock painted on the side of the stockings.

As this American advert for rayon stocking shows, there are several very interesting points

These are another style of painted stocking an art form which was very populate in the 20's I would say it was done mainly on silk stocking.

The Edwardian style of corsets were still worn by the older generations in the early part of the 20's the stockings been clipped to the bottom these would as the decade progressed evolve into a girdle like garment for the younger ladies they would still wear the girdle in daytime but occasionally especially for evening wear these would discarded rolling down there stockings wearing a garter, first a roll on garter or sometime a very decorative one.

Another example of painted or decorated stocking form the 1920's

This practice of painting stocking would re-emerge again in future decades although today they are not hand painted instead printed,

Whist the most common way that a 20's ladies would hold up there stocking by attaching then to the bottom of the girdle

Another solution was these of a garter the one shown in this photo is more decorative than functional they often had decorative stones in layer and like this one matched the gold kid shoes these decorative garter was more for decoration than practical use.

Roll on garter often worn to cover up the roll on garter which was functional but in a way boring to see decorative garter are still made and worn today they do not serve any practical purpose they are worn mainly by brides at their wedding for tradition and romantic reasons.

Patterned stockings were also very fashionable in the 20's.

What was shocking back then was the amount of leg on show.

These are a pair of seamed silk stocking dating from around the 1920's made by I.R Morley they have cotton soles and welt with a seam up the back.
I would say they are thee equivalent thickness of today's 60 denier hosiery. they were no way as long as modern stocking or today with the welt coming just above the knee as skirt lengths back in the 20's were below the knee in many instances and as silk was still relatively expensive there was not the need to have the extra expense in knitting a legs that was longer than it needed to be.

 

By the 1930's an average lady would now own three pairs of sheer stocking compared this to the start of the century when a lady would have just one pair this was because the price had dropped so dramatically by the 30's for hosiery.
Most likely these would be a combination of silk, rayon and cotton whilst no new fibres were developed in this decade for hosiery what you will find that is there was an improvement in the manufacture of hosiery combined this with the falling price in silk more finer and more elegant stocking were produced.
These are a pair of very early 1930 silk stocking or even late 20's, the natural or tan shade which was seen as risky in the twenties had become acceptable by the 1930's, these are still opaque in thickness and still relatively short in length, they have a reinforced heel and foot.
Another pair of silk stocking slightly later in date than the ones above the main difference with these is that they are a lot sheerer than the previous ones, still not as sheer and "nylons" they would have been at the top of the price range and keep for special occasions. "often know as fine gauge"

These are the earliest rayon stocking I presently own originating from the 1930's seamed rayon stockings one in black the other in a flesh or blush tone.

 

They can be described as silky smooth, to the untrained eye they look like silk hence the name artificial silk which was a namely mainly used in the 20's not commonly used today, they are semi sheer and typical of rayon have a shine to them. They are fully fashioned with a reinforced foot toe and heel and along with a Cuban heel.

 

The new "All in ones"

Up until the 1930's in general terms a set of ladies foundation wear would consist of three items, a bra, corset and knickers with a slip or chemise over the top ,in the1930's this would start to change with the introduction  "All In One". 

This was sometimes called the "corselets" which in theory combined these three together most ladies would still prefer to also wear a pair of knickers over the top of this garment. The stockings were attached with small clips made of metal at the end of a length of elastic often adjustable at the bottom of the all in one girdle going to the stocking welt.

The actual suspender part of these all in one were shorter the in the 1920's so the stocking were now a little longer in length so that they could reach these clips.

The Invention of Nylon.

Like many great invention, nylon was a by-product of the work started back in 1926 in the Du Point laboratories.
Dr. Wallace Hume Caruthers joined the Du Point laboratories in 1928 as head of organic chemistry research at the Wilmington laboratory Delaware.
Wallace Carothers was born on April 27 1896 started his career at Capital City Commercial College in Des Moines, Lowa, in a program of accountancy and secretarial administration, whist teaching accountancy at the Tarkio College in Missouri he studied science, as an undergraduate student was appointed head of chemistry, Although a talented chemist the real reason for his appointment was the shortage of suitable people due to World War 1.He received his PhD from the University of Illinois and then became a professor at Harvard where he first started his research into chemical structures of polymers in1924.y 1928 the DuPont chemical company opened an Organic Chemicals research laboratory for the development of artificial materials, deciding that basic research was the way to go - not a common path for a company to follow at the time, it's reported that DuPont were investing $20,000 per month into this laboratory.
DuPont’s Charles Stine (Stine known for his work on developing TNT established the Organic Chemicals Division within the DuPont Chemical Department in 1916 by 1930 Charles Stine was made a vice president and director of DuPont in 1930) he recruited Dr. Carothers for the fundamental research program that Stine was then organizing. Elmer K. Bolton, Carothers immediate boss, asked him to investigate the chemistry of an acetylene polymer that might lead to a synthetic rubber..
April 1930, Carothers team discovered neoprene synthetic rubber and synthesized the first polyester super polymer, the forerunner of nylon.
April 1930 and a lab assistant working with esters compounds which yield an acid and an alcohol or phenol in reaction with water discovered a very strong polymer that could be drawn into a fibre. This polyester fibre had a low melting point,  however. Carothers changed course and began working with amides, which were derived from ammonia.
1935 Carothers found a strong polyamide fibre that stood up well to both heat and solvents. He evaluated more than 100 different polyamide before choosing one for development.
Dr. Carothers married Helen Sweetman in 1936, a colleague of his at DuPont. A year later, April 29th 1937 he tragically committed suicide alone in a hotel in Philadelphia after a lifelong bout with depression.
Nylon changed the way people dressed worldwide and rendered the term "silk stocking" once an epithet directed at the wealthy elite obsolete.

The very first nylon stocking.

Nylon stocking were brought to market remarkably quickly, in part due to Dupont's learning from there experience with rayon and missing out on that market.

After determining that low-cost production were possible and settling on a target market (women's hosiery), Dupont produced a preliminary batch of nylon staple to confirm that the nylon hose would be practical, the sample was delivered to a commercial knitting mill under conditions of extreme secrecy (the research chemist who delivered the samples to the mill even slept with the sample on the train).

It took two test runs and a little further development to convince Dupont to build a pilot plant in Wilmington, then finally a full-scale production facility in Seaford Delaware on the 30 th of March 1939 Dupont made an agreement with ICI (Imperial Chemical Company) for the exclusive rights to produce nylon in the UK, in conjunction with ICI rivals Courtaulds, together they set up a third company called British Nylon Spinners Ltd (BNS).
The very first pair of nylon stocking when on sale as a small trial in a department store in Wilmington, Delaware (U.S.A) made by Du Point on the 27 October 1939 just to test the market.
They were a huge success with ladies coming from miles around to buy the new nylon stockings, the store sold out in a few hours as news spread about the area about these stockings. On the 3rd of September 1939 Britain and France declared war on Germany following the German invasion of Poland a month before Du point launched their nylon stockings.
January 1940 ICI transferred its exclusive rights for a fee over to British Nylon Spinners (BNS) to manufacture and distribution of nylon yarn in the UK, because British was at war the priority of the production of nylon was given over to war production of rope and parachutes along with other war related product instead of yarn for the production of stockings.
By the 15th of May 1940 the USA the first nylons stocking when on sale to the general public for the first time selling over 72,000 pairs in the first day alone.
The total sales for the first year are estimated to have been around 64 million pairs With these new nylon stocking du point captured 30% of hosiery market, although there wear plenty of nylons available for the ladies in the United States very few pairs would find their way across the Atlantic Ocean and onto the legs of the UK ladies. This was because of the success the Germans were having in cutting Britain off from America with their "U" boats fleet sinking an average of 22,000 tons of ships each month from the merchant fleet. Only essential supplies to keep the British war effort going was brought across this dangerous route nylon stocking were not one of the essential
s needed in the UK.

This fun photo which might have been staged by the photographer shows a lady who look so pleased to be able to buy a pair of stocking has decided to put them on whist sat in pubic on the side walk.

The British Nylon Spinners had their first production plant in operation in Coventry by 23 January 1940, it's total output of nylon gong to fill government contracts for war materials, a second plant Stow Market was also confined to government production mainly nylon for parachute fabric.

With very few pairs of nylon stocking to wear ladies had to "make do and mend" a term which would become all too familiar as the war progressed in the UK.

By 1941 clothing rationing come in to effect in the UK, The government controlled the styles of clothes and how they were made to reduce the quantity of raw materials require to make them this was called the CC41  ( Controlled Commodities) standard, the number of individual items a person could buy was restricted by issuing clothing coupons.

A notice which was published in Newspapers showing the number of clothing coupons a person needed to buy a item.

Stockings were rationed like all clothing (except second-hand clothes) a lady required 2 clothing coupons to buy 1 pair of stocking out of her total allocation of 66 coupons per year (1941) by the end of rationing the allocation had fallen down to 36 per year cotton, silk and wool stocking all came under the CC41 regulations.

The number of clothing coupons which were needed to buy an item was published by the board of trade in newspapers like the one on the left.

The US government followed with their rationing on the 7th December1941 forming the war production board (WPB), this was to regulate the production and allocation of materials.

Nylon now came under the control of this board the amount of fibre used in civilian clothing was now restricted so by that 1943 it was nearly impossible to buy a pair of the new nylons in a store in the USA.

Du point ceased production of nylon stockings and switched over to making parachutes, airplane cords and ropes, it's Seaford plant made parachutes and b-29 bomber tires with mainly a female work force as many men when into the armed force.

It also has to be mentioned that at this time Germany had also developed a man-made fibre in top secret called Perlon a synthetic fibre similar to the American nylon - this was invented by the German chemist Dr. Paul Schlack at I.G.-Farben. They also had a test run to make Perlon into ladies stocking after which it was declared to be a military defense material under the code name "Perluran" be one again production was diverted mainly into the German war preparation and later the war itself.

Join the forces and you would have some stocking issued.

For the ladies joining one of the armed forces then things were lightly different as you would be issued with a uniform which would include 3pairs of cotton lisle stockings and two suspender belts/corset, it's probable with time that the female service personnel would sneak in their own hosiery and undergarments but this was against regulations.
There are stories of the female work force at the top secrete Bletchley park drying their underwear next to the hot computers, which was of course was very much looked down upon.

USA enters the war and there are now a few more pair's nylons around.

With the build up a American troops in preparation for the invasion of Europe a small number of nylon stocking were brought into the UK by these GI's.
Compared to the potential demand this was still a very small number, mainly they would be given out to their girlfriends.
At this time they might have been a small number of nylons made during the war years these would be mainly for proper gander purposes it very difficult to be certain about this.

The lengths which  women would go to wear a pair of stockings.

These are a very rare pair of nylon stocking as you can see they are new and unworn made in the UK by, they have the CC41 mark in the top right of each stocking, close examination shows these stocking are not as sheer as you imagine.

Now with a shortage of stocking ladies would re-sort to wearing the hosiery they already had store away for special occasion pre-wartime, these m would have been silk stockings, cotton lisle or rayon.

Life without stockings.

The majority of ladies would not have nylons to wear, an estimation was that only 1% of ladies wore nylons regularly. all the others had to become very resourcefully because  it was thought that a lady without stockings was improperly dressed if she was out in public.

Ladies started to draw a line down the back of their leg to achieve the look of wearing stocking using an eye brow pencil or something similar to give this seamed effect.

For drawing a seam on your e.g. Max factor brought out a devise which helped to guide her to create a straight seam down the back of her leg ( left photo) instead of doing y or have someone ( left photo ) do it for you.

Occasionally ladies would even try to colour their legs with gravy browning mixed with a cream other home-made formula were developed using other house hold products to produce the desired effect, the problem I am told is if it rained when she was wearing some of these it would end up be a streaky mess down her leg.

A multitude of commercial products were also marketed towards the end of the war for colouring your legs to look like they were wearing stockings max factor brought out a cream around this time to simulate stockings which was applied in a similar way to normal face foundation today.

Path'e news made a news real showing this cream been applied by a lady to her legs, cosmetic were also rationed in war time so the max factor cream might also have been hard to come by another way to simulate a seam of a stocking was have a line tattooed on the back of their legs, this was more often done by wife of seamen, who were used to seeing tattoos on their husbands as a long tradition with seamen. Today a few ladies still decide to have a tattoo seam done.

For the ladies who did have a pair of nylons to wear the worst thing that could happen was when she got a ladder or run in them as nylons were so precious products were marketed to help her minimize the damage by sealing the thread.

Ladstiks.

Instruction are printed on the back of the packet telling the lady to moisten the tip of the stick in her mouth and rub it onto the top and bottom of the run, it also says that the substance used is not harmful for her, it's the same principle which was used more recently with nail varnish.

One such product was called lad stick manufactured by Griffith & associates Ltd of Bristol, most likely made in the latter half of the 40's.

 

Wartime black market nylons.

With the general shortage of nylon stocking  it's inevitable that an illegal black market would soon sprung up it is very unclear how all the stocking found their way onto the black market,  the cost of a pair of nylon stocking on the black market could be as much as $20 in the U.S.A.

There are several true stories about nylons stocking been made especially for the black market in the U.S.A, one is where thirteen cases of nylon yarn was stolen in transit to a parachute factory eventually ending up at a hosiery mill where the yarn was made up into stocking.

Another story was about a silk mill who had a contract to make glider tow rope and with a little false accounting managed to make a large quantity of yarn disappear, subsequently making this yarn up into nylon stocking.

Other cases included rayon stockings been sold as "nylons". The documentation for these along with other examples is held at the smithsonian.org there must have been many more black market nylons stocking schemes which when undetected throughout the war years.

Post war years and we have nylons again.

Production of nylon yarn for stocking started up again in the UK in December 1946 the production of yarn was controlled as it was destined for the export market to earn valuable money for the country, going to only to a few hosiery knitters who were on a what was called the " Preferred list" Aristoc been one of them along with I. R Morley's these companies were chosen because of its large number of contact they had abroad to market the nylon efficiently. Nylon stocking for home consumption was still restricted as the clothing rationing did not end until 1951.

British nylon spinners had the capacity supply most industries with their requirements for nylon yarn, at that time it had the largest factor floor in Europe with approx. 15 looms going all day, clothing might be the exception this as rationing  remained in force until 1951.

In the USA the production of nylon yarn and also stockings which were destined to be sold to the ladies started again in 1946 it took a little while before the production was satisfying demand and in several cities including Pittsburgh fights broke out in the street when 40,000 ladies queued up for only 13,000 pairs of nylon, called "the nylon riots" in the popular press.

By the mid 1950's nylons were readily available again for any lady the buy whenever they wanted a pair, these stockings were very much sheerer than what was seen in previous decades with a much larger range of shades.

The hosiery manufacture by now had time to buy brand new knitting machines and install them into their mill like the one above these were American Reading machines.

Stocking are now seam free !

The seam less stocking has kept making there appearances in various decades certainly in 1920 and again I think in the 1930 from what a few of my fellow vintage enthusiast tell me.

The drawback of these stocking and why they never took off was that the circular knitting machine could not decrease or increase the number of stitches

which would be required to make a fully fashioned stocking really they were just tubes of fabric with no shape, resulting in these seam free or seamless stocking been ill fitting and slightly baggy compared to the fully fashions stockings.

It was not in the 1950's when a new generation knitting machines come onto the market made first by an Italian companies then followed by Japanese companies,   these were circular knitting machine which for the first time were capable of automatically altering the number of stitches in a row, decreasing then increasing the stitches thus making it possible for ladies to have fully fashioned sheer stocking which were seamless.

Aristoc introduced these machines into Langley mill which was of Italian manufacture and produce there first seamless stocking in 1959

The seamless stocking were made with a flat nylon yarn and plain knitted with almost no stretch they were sold by foot size between a 9 and 12 in and in length from 29 inches to 31 inches even today over 50 years on they are still wearable.

The first hold up stocking.

It's always a bold statement to make by any one that you are the first to do something, however Pretty Polly claim on their web site that they invented the first hold up stocking in March 1967 and called this new style of stocking " Hold up" they never registered this trade make and over the years it has become a wildly used generic name.  I have seen adverts for stocking which claim not requiring suspenders to hold them up so this needs some more research.

The very first pantyhose.

In 1953 Allen Gant senior started work on developing the panty-tights and panty-legs or as we know them today as pantyhose or tights, they introduced the first commercial pairs to ladies pantyhose in 1959 made by (Glen Raven Mills of North Carolina) Allen Gant mill.

Previously the company made parachuted in WWII they started off as a cotton mill in 1880 by John Quinton Gant, today this company make high performance fabrics and wove the flag which was used on the moon landings

These panty-tights were received a very mixed reception from both ladies and also from other rival hosiery manufactures.

Ladies were familiar with the concept of tights, because the thicker tights had been worn in theater by actresses and circus performers not mentioning ballerinas for many years. Ladies were very uncertain about the pantry hose for several reasons.

Some of the reason why the pantyhose or tights were not well received at first.

Initially been very expensive: costing up to four times the cost of normal stocking. The new seamless RHT nylon stocking had just come onto the market most ladies were switching to these instead of seamed FF stockings. The very first pantyhose or tights still had as this was a big disadvantage and a good reason not for changing over to them from the manufactures perspective I they were investing heavily in circular knitting machine and there would not get a return on this investment before having to reinvest. Marketing was very much geared up to RHT stocking, you can see this on many stocking packets well in to the 70's as they

Then the fashion designers had different ideas because it open up new possibilities for them and they stated to force the changed over too pantyhose or tights from stocking with the arrival of the mini skirt brought out by marry want in 1966 featuring hemlines ranging from four to seven inches above the knee worn by the younger generation which would bring the pantyhose to the forefront of the fashion scene because with these mini skirt you could see the ladies stocking tops.

Sheer pantyhose were a different matter it would take big alteration in the hemline of the skirt before pantyhose or tights would because universally accepted by ladies.

Aristoc advert  from about 1967.

The change from stockings to pantyhose really started to take place in the mid to late 60's Aristoc in 1967, a large UK hosiery knitters made the required investment and started the production of tights (pantyhose).

As the decade progressed it was not just the young miniskirt wearers who started to wear the new pantyhose tights, more and more and ladies a were turning away from the opened bottom corselets and girdles and stocking to panty girdles which were easier to wear with trousers if you still wanted to wear a skirt then the same panty girdle could be worn with a skirt and tights.

Pretty Polly followed in 1968 with their own one piece tight competition and innovation changes the market.

From the late 1960's onwards foreign imports of hosiery especially from Europe, Germany, France and Italy now started flooding into Britain forcing the price down, along with the home grown competition manufactures were having to lowering the price of tights or pantyhose making them even more attractive for ladies to wear.

At the same time all this new competitions was forcing some manufacture out of business and other to merge with each other there were many takeover, brand acquisitions and mergers taking place with hosiery companies around this time, while others would fight back with innovation making changes to their brand and marketing.

This competition can also be seen on the hosiery packet search one telling the purchaser the merits of the particular pair of tights over another.

A better fit, sheerer fibres been used initially 15, then 10 denier thick fibres would come along in this decade and subsequent , different knitting patterns would be highlighted on the packet plain knit run resist, all these would came into play and used for marketing as a very important for the manufactures get ahead of the competition.

A Pretty Polly hosiery advert just as we change over to the decimal currency with 35 p ( pence) on the packet  and the text say it is 7 shillings.

You would also see manufactures make it very clear on the packet that pantyhose and tights were seam free just like the stocking, some pantyhose would still have reinforced heel and toe (RHT ) other like Pretty Polly tell us about "Micro mesh".

Just a little about fishnet stockings & tights.

The origin of fishnet stocking and much later tights is a little unclear, certainly fishnet stocking were wore by Victorian ladies as a pair is documented on Ebay community about  a pair of fishnet stocking were was once found in a pair of Victorian boots tucked out of sight in the toe area of the boots.

There is little factual information available about the true origins, fish net stocking or open work stocking would original have been crochet and not knitted which is a slightly different process.

Amanda Harper, Occasionally wears a pair of fishnets on BBC Look North.

Fishnets have come in out out of fashion on many occasions over the last hundred years, the 1920's and the 1950's are two of the decades when they were worn the most.  Today fishnet tights are seen as been fashion hosiery available in many shades and net mesh from micro net to fence nets.

By the Severities tights have now captured the market.

By 1970 there had been a remarkable turnaround for tights or pantyhose as they had captured around 70% of the hosiery market and the popularity of tights and pantyhose continued to grow thought the seventies and into the eighties.

Hosiery knitters increasing the length of their stocking to the longer one which we are familiar with today so that ladies could wear them with the shorter shirts, tights were here to stay.

Very early tights still had seams up the back these were not "fashion tights" they were made similar to stocking knitted flat then sewn up the back.

Tights also had a big impact on the corset put simply  there  not need to wear a girdle or corsetle to just to hold up your stocking and these garment were been rejected in ever increasing numbers by  younger ladies.

The Eighties and Hosiery.

Wolford surprise every one with two new pairs of  tights.

In 1987 The Austrian hosiery company Wolford well know for there innovators surprised every one with two very different pairs of tights which made the hosiery industry sit up and think about what they were all making as Wolford had moved on from been just another company making stockings and now tights to one which was creating new products.

first one was called "Opaque de Luxe" these tights used about twice as much Lycra as most other manufactures at that time, with other opaques which used with Lycra they had a strange sheen to them when wore in sunlight or bright artificial light, Wolford Opaque de Luxe was completely mat Black even under the strongest light.

The packet compared with ones  today has little information on it apart from the size guide it just says -

Opaque tights with a silk sheen

 40 denier (44 dtex)

81% Nylons 19% elastic

along with the washing instruction 

Wolford Satin Touch.

Was launched at the time as there Opaque De Luxe , because I had never worn a 1980's pair of Wolford Satin Touch apart from a different packaging and the shades available at that time  I can only think that they are very similar to the ones sold today.

The Introduction of Lycra.

The next major innovation for hosiery was the introduction of an elastic fibre often called Spandex, developed in 1958 by Du point who registered trade name of this fibre and called it Lycra, the first uses of this fibre was in support or surgical stocking.

In 1982 Pretty Polly introduced Lycra into the 15 denier range and were the first hosiery brand to successfully combine ultrafine bare Lycra with a fine denier textured yam giving a much improved fit for fashion hosiery.
By the mid 1980's 50% of all tights and stockings had some Lycra or spandex content , this gave a pair of stocking or tights the stretch which h is required for a better fit around the shape of the ladies leg without looking baggy these lycra tight did not requiring the boarding process which was previously used to make the leg shape ,also these elastic fibre improve the durability and appearance of hosiery ,at first Lycra was a very expensive fibre and so you would see manufacture using only 2 or 3 % of the total fibber content of a pair of tights or stockings as the photo show Lycra is not used as a single fibre it is woven together with another fibre.

The stretch which Lycra has can be used to make the stocking more supportive as in support or control tights and compression hosiery or depending upon how it's knitted is used in very sheer tights to add stretch and thus durability, today we can find hosiery in the shops which are form 60 -70 % nylon and 30 - 40%  Lycra or a similar elastic fibre.

The Disappearance of Hosiery-  Bare legs are once again in vogue.

Bare legs have gone in and out of fashion many times in different cultures around the world. Examples of this fashion can be found as far back as 1066 with the Norman peasant class commonly baring their legs.

Bare legs in England were a source of contention during the 1929 Wimbledon women's tennis tournament where a ban was considered and then ultimately rejected by English authorities, bare legs in women's tennis being the norm in both France and the United States at the time.

Whilst western women's fashions through the first half of the 20th century and beyond gradually made the revealing of the leg acceptable or even the norm, the absence of any covering was often seen as having particular sexual connotations.

The popularity of pantyhose grew into a wardrobe staple throughout the 1970s and 1980s. From 1995 a steady decline in sales of pantyhose began, levelling off in 2006 with American sales less than half of what they had once been. 

This decline has been attributed to bare legs in fashion, changes in workplace dress code, and the increased popularity of trousers.

Lady Diana Spence walked down the isle in July 1981 to marry Prince Charles wearing a dress made by David & Elizabeth Emanuel  it is also said Lady Diana  wore white silk stocking.

Princess Dianna choose of  clothes was in the subsequent  years like many members of the Royal family closely  followed by the fashion conscious. 

In  the earlier years Princess Dianna wore hosiery to great effect as a integral part of her overall look, You could even say became a unofficial ambassador for the wearing of hosiery when the industry was going through difficult times.

A hosiery industry fights back.

The hosiery industry had gone through many changes over the years you could say this was the most serious as it was the first time that  society and ladies  in the western world decided that ladies did not have to wear hosiery any more to be correctly dresses.

They came back with one word " Legware"  they seamed to be trying to put this over more as an Ethos of thinking about hosiery not been an essential item clothing, instead  looking at hosiery more as been a fashion accessory to complement your outfit or style.

Ultimately in time this will lead to hosiery companies producing  a multitude of fine knitted garment like patterned tights with elaborate designs on then changed each season to reflect the change fashion trend, legging , knee highs, sheer socks, capri tights ,over the knee socks.

Pretty Polly celebrates 50s years of hosiery making.

In 1988 Pretty Polly celebrated 50th in business with the  launch of Nylons with great success initially these were  fake seamed stockings and tights in a celebration packet. The brand provided a glamorous sheen, a sheer look and Lycra for a great fit Pretty Polly then capitalized on this success with the launch of the none seamed Nylon tights and stockings.

Nylons were recreating the glamour of war time Nylons using the technology of the late 1980’s.

Over the years the packet have changed to keep the brand looking fresh.

New fibres :- Microfiber.

This is the first of a new generation of fibres which are used in hosiery today.

Microfibers are fibers with a thickness of 1 denier, development of these fine fibres started as early as the 1950's. Microfibers were first publicized in the early 1990's in Sweden followed by Europe.

Microfiber is a synthetic fiber made up of a blend of polyester and polyamide or nylon. These materials are bundled together to form a strand that when examined under a microscope appears in the shape of a star. Those bundles are then split into ultra-fine single fibers using a specific combination of chemicals, heat and agitation. The fibers are finally woven together to make the finished microfiber product.

Microfiber by it's nature is a very soft fibre, today it tends to be used to produce opaque tights although when it was first launched into the hosiery industry several manufacture made sheer tights with Microfiber and the main selling point was the softness of the hosiery , I seam to remember from my own experience that these tights and stocking been very nice and soft to wear because of there sheerness they also had issues with the longevity. 

Hosiery in the 21st century.

Today there is now a bewildering array of hosiery on the market for every one to choose from.

Where once a lady would go into a department store or local shop to buy a pair of stockings there there would be a small number of brand stocked in the shop for here to choose from, today it's a  global market been as easy to buy hosiery made in Italy , France or Germany as ones produced in Derbyshire or a Uk brand.

There is now a unprecedented range of colours, patterns and thicknesses, apart from tights, holdups, stocking, over the knee, knee high , ankle high and foot sock on the market for us to choose from which I think is fabulous.

Zokki & Lycra 3D.

Zokki and  Lycra 3D  are different trade name for basically the same yarn.  

Marks and Spencers was  the only UK  manufacture to use a Zokki yarn to the best of my knowledge.

Wearing a pair of vintage Zoki tights from M&S

Hosiery made with  LYCRA 3D technology contains LYCRA fiber in every knitted course. This offers a number of advantages over hosiery in which Elastane is knitted into every other course.

Greater comfort and enhanced freedom of movement thanks to a more consistent level of compression over a range of body movements.
A more uniform appearance and a softer, smoother hand.   Increased garment durability.

Hosiery with LYCRA3D technology is typically steam-boarded for greater counter appeal. LYCRA T178C fibre is specifically engineered for end-uses that require greater steam-stability than standard Elastane and is the preferred yarn for LYCRA 3D technology.

Fancy wearing a pop of colour today.

As Ruth Goodman a popular social historian shows wearing coloured tights to complement her outfits filmed her in a social history program called Full Steam Ahead.

There was a time when stocking came in a limited range of shades each manufacturer having thereon pallet. The sixties is often thought about as the decade when coloured opaque tights were worn the most,

When you now look at the large range of shade available today from many of the top hosiery brands this might not be strictly true.

Keely Donavon a weather and news presenter on BBC Look North is seen here wearing coloured tights,  a pair of  deep purple opaque tights on the right & a pair of  Moroon tights on the left,  too great effect . 

Stockings are now making a come back.

They is a saying - "What goes around comes around" which is especially true when it come to the fashion industry including.

After many years of declining sale of stockings due to ladies choosing to wear tights over stocking ,  

Recently stocking especially holdup are making a come back not just for evening wear more and more ladies are now deciding to wear hold up stocking for everyday wear including work wear.

  New Sideria Yarn.

Sideria yarn is one of the latest yarns to be developed and used in ultra sheer or nude tights and stocking , a nylon/polyurethane composite fibre created with conjugation technology, one of the specialties of KB SEIREN. It self-crimps when treated with heat, and thereby possesses moderate stretchability.

Heat treatment provides Sideria with even and uniform spiral crimps, ensuring neat and smooth knit surface effects. Moderate Stretch ability

Being a bi component yarn of nylon and polyurethane, Sideria guarantees an extra-thin and superbly transparent knit which is scarcely achieved by conventional covered yarns.
Crisp Feel

Sideria has excellent elastic recovery as well as low stress-induced stretch ability. Even low count filament yarns made of Sideria are soft and crisp to the touch, instead of having rough texture

Ultra Sheer and Nude Hosiery.

For many decades it had been a desired of ladies to be able to wear hosiery which add just  a hint of colour to there legs still producing a flawless finish bringing out the natural beauty of there legs not  looking like they wear wearing stocking or tights this would require a fibre making very fine which also could be knitted making this impossible until relatively recently the name given to these fine tights and stocking was Ultra sheer or Nude hosiery.

Ultra sheers are defined as hosiery which is less than 10 denier in thickness, commonly ultra sheers are made of thicknesses ranging between 5 to 10 denier often made in a small range of colours , like these 5 denier Black Levante Resistenze tights which I wearing here.

Levante Ultra sheer Resistenze 5 denier tights in Black

Nude hosiery is just a variation on ultra sheer , referring to hosiery produced in more natural skin tones to match a the colour of your leg thus trying to give the impression that your not wearing any hosiery at all only adding a hint of colour and producing a flawless finish.

Many hosiery manufacture initially entered into this market of ultra sheer because they are so delicate these tight they are very easily laddered often this was blamed on the manufacture and many companies exited this sector because they felt it was damaging there overall reparation for quality when it was not fault of the product. 

Hosiery can also be foundation wear.

A few years ago Spanx came to the forefront after several gossip magazines photographers picked up on some celebrates having wardrobe malfunction whilst getting out of  car and accident showing some form of foundation wear which was soon identified as been Spanx.

 It was presumed at first that these ladies were unhappy with there figure and trying to use these items to drop a dress size, when in fact it's more likely about smoothing out the lumps and bumps which might shown up when wearing tight body con evening wear.

..

Whist there are plenty of control top & support tights on the market today, very few tights are what they call high waisted which means they going to just below your bra .

In this photo (left) I am wearing a pair of Spanx high waisted 20 denier tights under my Wallis dress to smooth out all the lumps and bumps.

Which are like to ones illustrated here on the right photo from a Spanx advert.

  BRAND NEW - Nano Fibre Hosiery.

The very latest fibre which is now been used to produce hosiery is called  Nanofiber ( defined as fibres with diameters less than 100 nanometres. In the textile industry, this definition is often extended to include fibres as large as 1000 nm diameter. They can be produced by melt processing, interfacial polymerization, electro spinning, anti solvent-induced polymer precipitation and electrostatic spinning. Carbon nanofibers are graphitized fibres produced by catalytic synthesis. 

At the time of writing there are two companies who use Nanofiber in there hosiery,

Oroblu with there Divine 10, Divine 20 Nanofiber tights along with Le Bourget calling there tights Heritage Luxe Affinant 20 Denier & Luxe 10 Tights  soon there maybe others brands.

.Le Bourget tights are describe  by the on line retailer UK tights as uber soft as it's made from the new Nanofiber technology and has an invisible toe so can be worn with a sandal if required. Great coverage and total luxury.

At the present time I have not personally  worn or handled any tights made with Nanofiber this is a pleasure to come.

Thank you for reading this page.