The History of Hosiery
I was trying to put together an outfit and that got me thinking about the history of clothes and well stockings. Trends come and go but if there's one piece of clothing that's consistently been part of it all, it is stockings!
Stockings go way back to 400 B.C, even before actually, but the design that resembles today's started appearing in the 1500s. The first references to hosiery can be found in works of?Hesiod, where Romans are said to have used leather or cloth in forms of strips to cover their lower body parts. Even the?Egyptians, way before they were discovered by the British used hosiery, as socks have been found in certain tombs.
Before 1940s hosiery was made out of wool, silk and occasionally cotton. Since there weren't any stretchy fabrics they were often held together with external sources. 1935 was when nylon was invented, in Dupont chemicals labotory and later on around the 1940's was introduced to the market in form of hosiery. It became popular instantly because compared to silk or wool it was much more affordable.
In the 50s the world was introduced to panti-legs, which we now know as panty hose! panti-legs or pantyhose instantly became everyone"s favourite, seamless stockings were the new trend!
In the 1960s Dupont came out with lycra which was much more long lasting and gave a better fit! Which was just in time for the mini skirt, business must be booming, though with the massive popularity when stockings first came out- I don't think it ever went down.
By the 70s spandex and other elastic materials grew in popularity and were being used for hosiery for a more fitted feel/look
1980s brought lace leggings! thanks to madonna everyone was wearing them under skirts, shorts and dresses.
Before the end of the 17th century no effort was made to embellish stockings whatsoever but then came the 1800s with it's vibrant palette and suddenly colourful stocking were the new fad!
Around the 1829 flesh coloured stockings became fashionable and by the 1880's colourful stockings came back in style.
In the 60s Pierre Cardin became the first designer who offered tights. They were opaque and available in countless colours for the winter and white or patterned for summertime. Emilio Pucci and Mary Quant shortly followed with various colours and well-known signature prints. By the end of this decade multiple patterns, deep natural tans and fishnets were also being used.
Dior launched a large range of coloured stockings in the early 80s called Diorella in every conceivable colour and "one size fits all". Lace tights and clocks made a comeback in the form of flowers, diamantes, butterflies and opaque black was trendy. The 90s has been the decade of revivals with just about every major style of the century reinterpreted.
Fun fact! in the world war II nylon was being used to make parachutes so people used "liquid stockings" they used to stain their legs brown and drew the seams with a pencil.
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Late 90s brought us ripped stockings and fishnets, you can thank the goths and punks for that! Fishnets have been around since the 1900's but weren't all that popular till the 1930s, they were mostly worn by performers whilst well performing.
Hosiery garments are made of different fabric, depending on the garment, but the most common fabric, referred to as the 'hosiery fabric' made with 'hosiery yarn' unlike regular yarn comes from a separate spinning process and is used with circular knitting machines to curate fabric.
In 1589, the first sort of hosiery knitting machine, 'A stocking frame' was invented by Reverend William Lee in Nottingham, England for queen Elizabeth. Machine made stockings were pretty expensive so the hand knit game was still going pretty strong.
In the mid 1800s machine-made stocking grew more affordable as the technical developments saw increased output at a cheaper price. By the 1880s, A fully automatic circular machine was now being used to manufacture stockings as a complete tube with heel and toe closed.
Stockings were initially worn by everyone, around the 1800s men moved away from them and they became strictly a feminine accessory. Now with androgyny coming into the scene we're slowly moving toward un-gendering clothing and stockings are now being worn by everyone.
The true origin of tights as we know them today were actually leggings for men. At the very beginning, when they were being introduced to the world, attached at the belt, they were improved to become one piece of clothing by sewing a gusset in between. The invention of a machine for knitting stockings revolutionised the manufacturing of hosiery made from cotton, linen, wool or silk and when Queen Elisabeth I was presented the first pair of knitted silk stockings, she instantly became fond of them and some say that she didn't want to wear anything else ever again.
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