Stockings - the history of nylons
Author: Debbie Mendoza

Stockings have a long history - there are still examples of
hand-knitted designs from the 12th century in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. However mass
production was only possible using machinery, and it was in
1589 Reverend William Lee from the village of Calverton
near Nottingham who invented the framework knitting
machine. Later this was augmented by John Heathcoat's
invention, the Bobbin-net Machine, which allowed the
machinery to be used for the production of lace, but that
is beyond the scope of this article.

The story goes that Reverend Lee fell in love with a young
lady in his local village. However at each visit his
advances were all but ignored, as she was devoting all her
concentration to her stocking knitting, and none to him!
Spurned the curate is said to have determined to design an
automated knitting process so that hand knitting would
become obsolete! It took him three years to work at this
idea, giving up his curate's position to devote himself
wholeheartedly to the task.

After three years the stocking-weaving machine, made almost
entirely of wood, was operational. It was a remarkable
endeavor indeed as he was a curate with no formal
mechanical training, and his tools were primitive. He had
to overcome amazing technical challenges - for example the
initial version of the machine had the needles stuck into a
chunk of wood! Once his initial machine, said to be a 12
gauge and using wool, was working he trained his brother
James and other relatives on the use of the loom.

He then set off to London, wishing to gain the patronage of
Queen Elizabeth whose penchant for silk stockings was
well-known. His perseverance paid off and he was
eventually granted an audience with the queen but when he
demonstrated the machine to her, he was shocked as she did
not offer the expected sponsorship. She was reputedly
concerned that such mechanization of stocking manufacture
in this way would put a large number of hand knitters of
stockings out of work.

Disappointed and feeling rejected, and at the suggestion of
one Sully, a minister of Henry IV, he set off for Rouen in
France in 1605, at that time probably the foremost centers
of manufacture in France. All was working well - he had
taken his brother and seven workmen, and with Henry IV's
patronage was mass manufacturing stockings for the first
time, simultaneously using no less than nine looms. Then
tragedy struck - Henry IV was murdered and with that went
Lee's protection. His privileges were withdrawn.
Devastated he attempted to fight a case in the Paris courts
but he failed. He died not long after in Paris,
broken-hearted and impoverished.

However his brother along with seven workmen managed to
escape France, bringing seven looms with them back to
Thoroton in Nottinghamshire. There he set up a mill where
Ashton, a workman who had formerly been trained by William
Lee before his ill-fated departure, joined him. This area
of Nottingham was ideal location for woolen stocking
manufacture as the quality of the wool was better - the
staple or cross-linking of the fibres made for a stronger
yarn well suited to weaving.

Nottingham area became the hub for stocking production and
from this point on stocking weaving became an important
industry for England. England guarded this technological
know-how very closely, and by 1696 it was actually illegal
to export a loom for making stockings. Anyone caught had
their equipment confiscated and were fine the huge (back
then) sum of forty pounds.

By the 18th Century frame-work knitting of stockings had
come to America in a swathe from New England to
Pennsylvania. From here on mechanization gathered pace -
in 1816 the first circular knitting machine was patented,
and in 1857 the patent was granted in England for a machine
for manufacture of full-fashioned stockings.

Stocking materials - the sexy nylon stocking is born

Gradually by the late 1800's the use of wool gave way to
cotton, and by 1929 the vast majority of stocking
production was in silk. Then at Du Pont laboratories came
Dr Wallace Carrothers momentous discovery - nylon!
Carrothers was a brilliant polymer chemist with a rather
turbulent private life that led to fits of depression.
Nevertheless his development of what was initially known as
polyamide 6-6 with its extremely high melting point
revolutionized women's lives!

At the end of the Second World War nylon manufacture was
geared back to the mass production of nylons. The demand
was enormous - in 1945 Macy's sold out of its entire stock
of 50,000 pairs of nylon stockings in six hours!

Stocking designs

The nylon seamed stockings were generally of the fully
fashioned variety - that is the machine used to make then
was designed to drop stitches where needed so that the leg
was not simply a tube but was narrowed at the ankle and
widened at the thigh. The flat material was therefore
designed to fit the leg snugly, when wrapped and stitched
down the back to produce the seam. Of course nylon (and
its predecessors) does not have stretch so it became
necessary to manufacture stockings in a variety of foot
length and leg lengths.

Until the end of the second world war stockings were in
short supply. Because the tell-tale sign of a fully
fashioned stocking is the back seam, so it was common for
ladies to use an eyebrow pencil to create an artificial
seam up the back of their leg to simulate a genuine
stocking!

Seamless stockings

The invention of the circular stitching machine enabled the
advent of seamless stockings which by 1950 had surpassed
the seamed stocking in popularity. However sizing was
still an issue and, because they do not stretch, it is
common to find some bagging behind the knees and at the
ankles with both the original seamed and newer seamless
stockings from this era. This was all to change in 1959
when lycra, also known as spandex arrived. For the first
time one size could fit a variety of legs, snugly and
without bagging.

Pantyhose or stockings?

The advent of the 'swinging sixties' brought the hemlines
so short that comedians would joke that it was less of a
skirt and more of a broad belt. There was a brief time
when stocking tops were frequently on show before pantyhose
or tights took the hosiery world by storm. However it is
the sensual nylon stocking that still holds the affection
of most men - and an admittedly lesser percentage of women.
Of course any woman who has been fortunate enough to feel
the silky smoothness of the original fifties flat knit
stocking cannot fail to fall under the spell of these wispy
nylons.


About the Author:

Debbie Mendoza founded and runs http://www.sleeknchic.com
for the past 10 years. She specializes in genuine vintage
lingerie, shapewear & stockings from the 40s to 70s. The
site has supplied vintage lingerie for collectors,
burlesque artists, film companies and theater groups.
Make sure to save 10% on your initial order at sleeknchic
by entering the coupon RETRO on checkout.