Nylons nail it for peak pins - 75 years of stockings

The ultimate in erotica, still at the cutting edge of fashion and a staple of every woman’s underwear drawer, Jonathan de Burca Butler pays homage to the nylon stocking on its 75th anniversary.

THEY have been known to reduce men to blubbering fools. They have been worn in bank heists, used as paint strainers and housewives of a certain generation swear by them for cleaning the silver.

Nylon stockings were first introduced to the world on October 27, 1939, when they were sold in a department store in Wilmington, Delaware in the USA. The fabric itself had been discovered a few years earlier by the nearby DuPont chemical company who initially used the man made material, the world’s first, for toothbrushes and fishing line. By May 1940, nylon stockings were being sold in department stores in New York.

Their durability and low cost captured the imagination of women across the USA and in the first year, 64 million pairs were sold across the country. The initial burst in sales was cut short by the outbreak of the Second World War. DuPont still made nylon but only for parachutes, tents and other goods deemed necessary for the war effort. The production of nylon stockings was.. ehm... suspended, and thus their price on the black market shot up. Such was their value that they were specifically targeted by people robbing houses. Songs like “When the Nylons Bloom Again” showed the cultural impact the accessory had had on society before the war and how sorely they were missed. Little wonder then that when a limited supply went on sale shortly after the war, there were riots in department stores.

In San Francisco, the sale of nylons had to be called off after one of the store windows was broken by the force of the crowd. A headline in Augusta, Georgia, read “Women Risk Life and Limb in Bitter Battle for Nylons” while crowds of up to 40,000 turned up at stores in New York and Pittsburgh. In the 1950s, DuPont discovered that they could put a stretch into tights and the revolution took off again. Now women could wear tights or pantyhose all the way up their legs and feel sexy without risking revealing too much. “I suppose it did change women even in simple ways like movement,” says fashion writer Ruth Griffin who runs the fashion blog RuaRuth.com. “The skirt was getting shorter and you were able to get your legs out and about. In the ’60s with the introduction of the mini skirt, they really became a fashion item in themselves, with your psychedelic colours and the like.

“I don’t wear trousers myself so for me they’re the most important thing in my wardrobe. I think it’s the same for most women. There’s a lot of warmth in them, they add colour and there are so many different varieties now you can feel really comfortable in them.

“The thing about them is that they’re very flattering. They make your legs look amazing. If they’re opaque, they make the leg look thinner. If they’re skin colour you can give them an oil look, you can make them look glittery. But mainly you can cover blemishes, you can cover hair. You make your legs look nice and sometimes it can be so natural that people don’t even know you’re wearing them but you’ve made your legs look good. And it’s a quick way of doing that.”

“Having the right hosiery can change an outfit,” says Roslyn Ellis of Brown Thomas in Dublin. “We make such an effort on make-up and clothes, why would you not finish the look properly? From my perspective as a buyer, there is so much innovation in hosiery. Every time we go to see companies like Wolford or Falke we’re amazed with what they have to show us.

“We buy into hosiery that is a solution for everyday wardrobe dilemmas as well as pieces that are simply show stopping designs in themselves. A show stopping piece of hosiery can be the most economical way of updating a little black dress for example. So we like to take a broad outlook.”

A quick glimpse at what Brown Thomas has in its shop window is an indicator of how far hosiery has come since 1939. Among the store’s offerings is a nude tight by Falke that becomes invisible on the leg with body heat; apparently Kate Midleton is a fan. There’s also a tight from Wolford with a zip detailing on the back and if you’re so inclined, and have recently won the Lotto, you can purchase one of a limited edition jewellery tight for €295.

Just a stone’s throw from Grafton Street you will find Showco in the Georges Street Arcade. Its owner Kathy Flannery has more than 100 types of tights, socks and stockings on display in her colourful shop and says that she caters to everyone from “teenagers to mature adult”.

“You want them to last, especially if you’re paying €20 for them,” she says. “Leg Avenue from the States are the most popular brand we have. They have a wide variety and they’re good quality. In terms of style it changes all the time. I do costume tights too and burlesque is very popular in Dublin. We often get people from France buying those types of tights here because it’s seen as too risque over there.”

For burlesque dancer, Bella Agogo, a wide variety of stockings allows her to have fun with her costumes and to expand her pantheon of alluring characters.

“Stockings are an integral part of berlesque performance,” she says. “You get to flirt. There’s the slow reveal of the leg, the unhooking of the garter belt, having to wait to see what’s there. Undoubtedly, it is very sexy. I suppose for people who aren’t necessarily used to seeing them, that sort of vintage stocking with the seam up the back evokes images of eroticism. But I have friends who wear them on a daily basis and they’re wearing them for themselves rather than anyone else. So in that context you wear them to give yourself a kick.”

Does the return of the stocking mean the end for nylons?

“There’s a vogue for vintage at the moment and the ritual of putting on pretty underwear and stockings as opposed to simple modern fully fashioned tights.” says Ruth Griffin. “People just want to feel a bit special while they dress. But I don’t think we’ll see the end of nylons. As long as manufacturers keep using new breathable technologies, make women look and feel great, they won’t be going anywhere.”