The Story of Stockings, Tights, and Pantyhose Stockings have a long history and by the earliest centuries A.D. most Europeans covered their legs with rough fitting knitted or woven trousers which stretched to the ankle. These were known as hose from the Old German word for leg covering. From around 1340 hose came to refer to two long stockings mostly worn by men which were cut to fit the leg tightly from crotch to foot.
By the early 1500s, hose were often divided into two parts with the lower part being tied below the knee with a garter. Queen Elizabeth I of England was famously given a pair of silk stockings as a new year's gift in 1566 and declared "henceforth I will weare no more cloth stockings."
Thanks to the invention in 1589 by William Lee of a manual stocking knitting frame that could produce 600 stitches a minute, England held the monopoly on European hose production throughout the 1600s.
By 1860, hosiery production was mechanised and the knitting frame of the late 1800s was quickly followed by a cotton machine which manufactured flat knit stockings in the shape of the leg and closed by a seam.
Stockings that stretched to the knees, or corsets with suspenders (known as basques), worn with short silk chemises and silk drawers, were all the rage for the rich in the early 1900s. By contrast those of the poorer classes, who wore stockings, tied them just below the knee with cord or bits of string.
In the 1920s, and to accompany the new shorter skirts, manufacturers created new garters with ribbon rosettes and by 1928 suspender belts were no longer fashionable as stockings were rolled around garters above the knee.
Stockings were seasonal wear, black in winter and white in summer, and were not subject to the whims of fashion. As society changed, by the late 1920s the stocking was used to display the leg.
The costume historian, Lawrence Langner, said of the advent of short skirts in the 1920s, "black stockings began to produce a somewhat startling effect. They pointed like two black signposts to the lingerie above, and transformed what had been a mere suggestion to masculine interest into a positive invitation to set forth on a voyage of discovery".
Over time stocking colours were made closer and closer to nude. The flesh coloured stockings were made in the recently introduced rayon known as artificial silk.
The fact that the stockings were rolled around a garter above the knee drew attention to the naked thighs above and hence stockings took on a deeply erotic significance.
Stockings featured as erotic fantasies in Hollywood films like The Blue Angel in which Marlene Dietrich wore them to play a temptress. This stocking fantasy was reflected in literature and evolved into more specialist areas of fetish.
Then on May 15th 1940 in the United States a seismic shift occurred in the world of the stocking - the first nylon stockings went on sale. In four days 4 million pairs were sold!
But when the USA joined World War II the sale of nylons ceased and women had to wait until 1945 for their return. The effect was dramatic; in New York Macey's sold their entire stock of 50,000 pairs in six hours! In Pittsburgh, 40,000 women waited all night in the rain to buy nylons from a small hosiery shop!
It took until 1948 for production of nylons to return to normal and for supply to match demand. Fully fashioned stockings were still available in silk but nylons quickly dominated the market. Different weights, or 'denier', became available, with 30 denier stockings being worn for day wear and 15 denier for special occasions.
In the late 1950s, nylon stockings were much finer, better shaped and much cheaper than ever and as fashion designers raised hem levels the 'bare legged' seamless nylons were introduced. Finally in 1959 improved dying techniques meant that bright colours could be introduced and Spandex, the new body hugging fabric, meant that baggy stockings were a thing of the past.
Then, for stocking lovers, came the black days of the 1960s when 'tights' or pantyhose were introduced. Originally the panties part of the pantyhose was knitted in thin natural rubber threads which do not sound particularly appealing. However, tights could be worn with the mini-skirt whereas suspender belts could not. Mary Quant's trademark daisy motif was particularly sought after on her own brand of pantyhose.
The mini-skirt put the fashion emphasis on legs, and pantyhose were available in just about every colour and texture. In 1969, Round-the-Clock introduced a silky Deering Miliken fabric that reinforced both the thighs and tummy area and by the winter of 1969 pantyhose were cut in Lycra tricot with net panties.
But stockings had not gone for ever. Black seamed stockings and tiny lacy garter belts came back with a rush in the 1970s; this time with clear erotic and bedroom overtones. This essentially male pleasing vision was subverted by female punks who wore torn fishnet stockings with Dr Marten boots and rubber mini-skirts short enough to reveal a flash of stocking top
Still the fashion focus remained on legs throughout the 1970s and there was an emphasis on experimenting with designs and fabric mixes including pin-stripes and diamonds. Seamed pantyhose were a big hit with the emerging Disco generation. Fishnets were worn on the Paris catwalks in 1979 and rivalled the previous success of seams.
Silk, however, was still seen as the most luxurious of all fabrics and continued to be regarded as the height of elegance. Americans clamoured for Christian Dior's extra sheer two-thread silk stockings imported from France. (The USA no longer had the skills to make them.) The naturalness of silk made it an obvious choice for those who could not wear artificial fibres.
Stockings were the ultimate fashion solution of the 1980s. From 1982 to 1985 suspender (garter) belt sales rose by 150% in Britain as women strove for power in the bedroom as well as the boardroom. Hold-ups provided a gusset-free alternative without the paraphernalia of buttons and clips. Opaque finishes deflected the gaze held by previously nude styles.
To compete, manufacturers of pantyhose developed the crotchless pantyhose. This had medical benefits as well as a convenience factor - women did not have to remove them for the 'ladies room', a process that caused sagging when repeated too often.
In 1983 leg warmers, worn under skirts like leggings, enjoyed a vogue made popular by the film Flashdance. Pantyhose no longer pretended to be natural; there were thick woolly ones for winter wear and ribbed sock-like varieties.
Changes in lifestyle demanded casual hosiery and body wear suitable for active women. Pantyhose grew ever more daring with wild designs and patterns. The market for athletic wear and street wear pushed the sock trade into the limelight and Lycra Spandex was the material of choice, with leg coverings decorated in boldly painted or subtly patterned designs.
By 1990 women could buy stockings and pantyhose in any colour or weight. The choice available to western women became enormous. The recent vogue for 'kitten heel' shoes has put the emphasis back on to the sheer-look for legs
It is interesting to think that, as Flugel the psychologist observed in 1930, at the start of the twentieth century "it was indelicate not merely to show the leg but even to refer to it - at least by its proper name."
Now there is no rule about how much or how little leg is shown; once one of the great social taboos, the leg is accepted at the most formal of functions especially if sheathed in a stocking. How much leg you choose to show and what you choose to wear, if anything, is up to you.
Sources and References:
Extracts taken from "The Best in Lingerie Design" by Joy McKenzie, published by BT Batsford 1997
Extracts taken from "A Century of Style: Lingerie" by Karen W. Bressler, Karoline Newman, Gillian Proctor, published by the Apple Press 1998
Extracts taken from "Lingerie A Lexicon of Style" by Caroline Cox, published by Scriptum Editions 2000
Extracts taken from "Making Lingerie and Nightwear" by Nicholas Bullen, published by Mills and Boon 1979
