Definition – Hosiery – hose; stockings and socks, hose and knitted or woven underwear, mainly British.
So, a brief history of hosiery for the discerning gentleman or just the curious amongst you
In 256 A.D woven cloth and hand knitted fabrics were made, the Egyptians with chic red woollen socks with a fashioned heel cup were next and followed closely by Charlemagne in 1771 -1841 wore leg bindings.
Queen Elizabeth 1, House of Tudor, received her first pair of silk stockings in 1560, bet they didn’t ladder the first time she put them on lol
and during that time for the adventurous wanderlust entrepreneurs a job advert to work in Pennsylvania requiring stocking weavers to take with them two looms and some yarn, would have looked pretty good on your CV of the day
During the revolution men in the army need hand knitted stockings just to keep warm, wonder if there was colour co ordination then … can see a little tan or natural shade being popular
…….and as you can imagine by the 1860’s the Americans had really taken hold of the hosiery market and the material changed from a wool to a wool and cotton mix and then to silk, what luxury then and ironically we ladies cant afford them today and so lucky for us in 1937 nylon was invented for stockings. In 1945 at the end of World War 2 Macys in New York sold out of its entire stock of 50,000 pairs of nylons in six hours!
There are so many items of hosiery to choose from today – tights, hold ups, stockings, fish nets, seamed tights, seamed hold ups, matt finish, crutch less, knee highs, sheer, opaque, reinforced toe, sandal toe, 8,10,15 denier up to 60 !, decorated with spots, stripes, diamonds and animal print !
phew, I am exhausted just reading the list, let alone choosing a type and shade is exhausting, although its not as difficult choosing a coffee in starbucks or Costa coffee … now that’s a story for another time lol
Until the next time ……
In the olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking but now, god knows, anything goes – Cole Porter