Pantyhose History

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The History of Pantyhose

On October 27, 1938, Charles Stine, a vice president of E. I. du Pont de Nemours, Inc., announced that nylon had been invented. He unveiled the world's first synthetic fiber not to a scientific society but to three thousand women's club members gathered at the site of the 1939 New York World's Fair for the New York Herald Tribune's Eighth Annual Forum on Current Problems.

New York World's Fair two models demonstrate the durability of nylon stockings, by playing tug-of-war

DuPont built the first full-scale nylon plant in Seaford, Delaware, and began commercial production in January of 1940. The company decided not to register nylon as a trademark, according to Dupont they choose to allow the word to enter the American vocabulary as a synonym for stockings.

On May 15th, 1940, Nylons were sold to the general public and nylon hosiery became a huge success as women lined up at stores across the United States to obtain the precious goods. Four Million Pairs of Nylons were sold in the first few days. It was called the New Miracle Fiber. Women everywhere were highly motivated to be included in the newest fashion trend. Within the first year DuPont sold over 64 million pairs of stockings.

With the outbreak of World War II nylon production for fashion was ceased and was used for the war effort. Women resorted to using makeup to decorate their legs, like drawing fake seams up the back of their legs with eyebrow pencils.

When World War II ended in 1945, women began to demand nylons again, however their demand greatly exceeded supply by two years. Newspapers ran stories with headlines such as "Women Risk Life and Limb in Bitter Battle over Nylons."

In New York, Macy's sold out of it's entire stock of 50,000 pairs of nylons in six hours, leaving a long line of unhappy, barelegged women. Meanwhile, in Pittsburgh a mob of 40,000 women stood all night in a torrential rainstorm to buy nylons from a tiny hosiery shop.

By 1948, production of nylon stockings returned to normal.

Hosiery took another giant step ahead with the development of spandex in 1959. This highly elastic fiber has repeatedly revolutionized fashion ever since. Spandex continuously conforms to the body, stretching and then snapping back in place, ending the saga of saggy and baggy hose.

From 1963 to 1967 as women's skirts became shorter and shorter the pantyhose fashion began to dominate women's hosiery, making stockings almost a thing of the past.

In 2004, there are only a handful of mills around the world that still produce Fully Fashioned Nylon Stockings.

Today, hosiery is available in a wide array of colors, deniers, textures, patterns and fabrics. Pantyhose are used for everything from working to exercising, casual to dressy, and are available in all sizes.

Pantyhose: are manufactured in a wide range of fabric weights, knits and colors. In general, heavier weight fabrics are stronger and more durable, but are thicker and show less of the natural skin tone. Lighter, sheerer garments look and feel more luxurious and sexy but are not as strong as their heavier cousins. Reinforced toes and heels will add to the life of your hosiery, but it's a known fact that more light and sheer the hosiery is, the more delicate it is and the more care it requires.

In closing consumers will find that price is not an indicator of durability. If you are looking to buy pantyhose or stockings/nylons please visit our Buy Pantyhose Page.

Note: Not all but some of the information was adapted from The Sheer Facts about Hosiery, developed by the National Association of Hosiery Manufacturers (NAHM), which is a voluntary organization of approximately 450 hosiery manufacturers and suppliers.