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Women's stockings including the arrival of nylon

Nylon stockings only arrived in Britain after the Second World War. This page describes how, before then, women painted their legs or wore thicker stockings. It goes on to describe the appearance and prices of the early nylons, invisible mending and more."

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By the webmaster, based on many years of observations and discussions with older women

As a child growing up in wartime Britain, the first I knew of nylon stockings was no more than hearsay. I never saw any until the late 1940s or early 1950s.

Nylon stockings were known as 'nylons' and, like all stockings, came in pairs, as tights were unknown. They, like all the older stockings before them, were held up with suspenders attached to corsets or suspender belts.

Suspender to hold up stockings. There would have been one at the back too.

Nylons carried a sheen and were said to make women's legs look very beautiful indeed - which was probably what all the fuss was about.

Stockings before nylons

Before nylons hit the fashion scene, well-off young women wore silk stockings which were expensive, However during the war years and the austerity afterwards, silk stockings were impossible to buy.

Older women wore thicker stockings made of wool or lisle, a form of twisted cotton. My mother wore lisle because wool itched her skin.

Painted stockings and seams

While nylon and silk stockings were unavailable, most young women simply painted their legs with cold tea or a commercially available liquid called Silktona. In order better to mimic stockings which were always made in one flat piece with the edges sewn together, the women painted a line on the backs of their legs to mimic a seam. I don't know what they used for this. I read somewhere that it was eyebrow pencil, but I doubt if that was available. Do you know?

Old Silktona poster, photographed in Amberley Museum. Silktona was used to paint women's legs to make them appear to be wearing silk stockings.

Fully fashioned nylon stockings

Early nylon stockings didn't stretch. So they came in a range of sizes, shaped to the leg, and described as 'fully fashioned'.

Fully fashioned nylon stockings, edited screen shot from an old film.

Fashion dictated that the seam of fully fashioned nylons had to be worn precisely along the centre of the back of the legs. Crooked seams were looked upon as slovenly.

Nylon stockings from American soldiers

The only women who got to wear nylons during the war were the favoured few of an age and opportunity to get themselves friendly with American soldiers stationed in the UK.

Shop displays of nylons

Nylons came in a range of shades, and women seemed particular about choosing the right one.

Nylon stocking as displayed by shops in the 1950s, edited screen shot from an old film.

There was also a range of thicknesses, described in terms of 'denier'. The two main ones were 15 denier and 30 denier. 15 was the finer of the two.

Shops made the choice easier by displaying the various shades and thicknesses on dummy legs in windows or on counters.

Invisible mending of nylon stockings

Understandably nylons were expensive as well as being extremely fragile.

When - not if - they caught on something, however tiny the tear, the fine knitting dropped its stitches into what were known as 'ladders'. Most high streets had shops of 'invisible menders' who, for a charge, would painstakingly pick up the stitches with gadget something like a miniature rug-making tool, using a powerful magnifying glass.

Later on, stockings were produced with a form of knot stitch that made snags go into holes rather than ladders.

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