The history of nylon stockings
Before Nylon, There Was Silk
Until the 1930s, stockings were made of silk, cotton, or wool. Silk was the most beautiful—and immediately presented a problem: it was expensive, delicate, and entirely dependent on imports. A run meant a considerable financial loss.
In DuPont’s laboratories, a team led by chemist Wallace Carothers was working on synthetic fibers. By the mid-1930s, they had developed a polyamide that was strong, elastic, and glossy. It was called nylon.
May 15, 1940
Nylon stockings were first sold to the public on a large scale in the United States on May 15, 1940, a day that went down in history as N-Day. Demand was enormous, and supplies were gone within a few days.
The appeal was easy to explain. Nylon was stronger than silk, held its shape better, and was cheaper. For the first time, a refined stocking was not a luxury item reserved for a small group.
The War Brings Everything to a Halt
Soon afterward, production came to a standstill. Nylon proved ideally suited to parachutes, ropes, and tent fabric, and production was redirected to military use.
Stockings disappeared from stores, and a lively black market emerged. This period also gave rise to the familiar image of women drawing a seam line on their calves to create the impression of wearing stockings.
The Nylon Riots
When production resumed after the war, demand was impossible to keep up with. In 1945 and 1946, huge lines formed in several American cities outside stores that had received a shipment of nylons. There are reports of thousands of people lining up outside a single store. The press dubbed the phenomenon the nylon riots.
Few garments have ever caused such immediate public excitement.
From Seamed to Seamless
The stockings of those years were Fully Fashioned: flat-knitted and sewn closed with a seam at the back. The seam was not a stylistic choice but a construction feature.
In the 1950s, the circular knitting machine made its debut. It produced a seamless stocking in a single operation, faster and more cheaply. Within a decade, the seam had largely disappeared from the streets, precisely when technology made it obsolete.
The Pantyhose Change the Game
The real turning point came in the 1960s. Skirts became shorter, making stockings worn with a garter belt impractical: the top edge would simply become visible. Pantyhose, combining a stocking and briefs in one garment, solved the problem.
A second invention also played a role. In 1958, DuPont developed an elastic fiber that became known as Lycra. It allowed stockings and pantyhose to stretch with the leg, making the fit considerably more forgiving.
And Now?
Pantyhose became an everyday product, while the classic stocking became a choice. That is precisely what keeps it interesting: anyone who wears Fully Fashioned stockings today does so not because they have to, but because they choose the look.
The machines used to make these stockings still date back to those first decades. No new ones are being built anymore.
