Hosiery News: 2012

Maternity Tights: The Yay to the Nay

As the weather turns colder, suddenly I am faced with a major pregnancy dilemma. All the maternity clothes I have bought thus far are for the summer. It seems silly to invest in a bunch of new maternity clothes when I only have seven weeks left (that’s if I go full term, I was two weeks early with my first) so I am left to figure out how to transition my summer clothes into fall.
My solution? Maternity tights.
Take all those summer dresses and throw them on with a pair of fall-colored tights and a pair of boots. Then take a cardigan— non-maternity cardigans work— throw it over the ensemble and VIOLA! Fall maternity wardrobe!
With that in mind, I bought three pairs of opaque tights in three different colors— gray, black, and brown— and figured that would have me covered. And since I am in the habit of telling you what’s worth the price and what isn’t, I bought them at three different stores at different price points.

Stockings Series, Part 3: Ads from the Archives, 1890-1939

The story of stockings began before the nylon version captivated American women. Leading up to the craze for the synthetic stretchy material, silk stockings had their moment from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century. As hemlines rose and legs were exposed, silk stockings became an essential part of many women’s wardrobes. As I mentioned in Part 1 of Threaded’s Stocking Series, women, on average, purchased eight pairs per year. By the 1930s, in fact, Japanese silk producers were earning $70 million annually, mostly from stocking production. But the non-stretchy silk product was expensive, deteriorated quickly and ran easily. So before nylon was invented (and women went so far as to paint stocking onto their legs when there was a wartime shortage), techniques thought to elongate the lifespan of silk hose were embraced.

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Pantyhose Aren’t Dead Yet

Do you wear pantyhose to work? What about your friends? Or your adult kids?

This fashion accessory, once a staple for working women, seems to be seen less frequently at some workplaces. But why?

How to Put on Fully Fashioned Stockings

Trending: Colored Tights for Fall

Stockings Series, Part 2: Paint-on Hosiery During the War Years

So it’s Saturday night in 1941, and you want to wear stockings with your cocktail dress, but the new wonder material nylon has been rationed for the war effort and has disappeared from department store shelves. What do you do in such times of patriotic privation? You get resourceful, and cover your legs with a layer of nude-colored makeup, and line the back of each leg with a trompe l’oeil seam.

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To Luxury Legwear and Beyond: Wolford AW12 Collection Hits Stores

So September has come around quicker than ever and whilst it doesn't seem quite the time to put summer dresses away, it's definitely time to pile on the knits and to become reacquainted with your tights drawer. Wolford - the high end hosiery company established in Austria after the war - held a timely event last week to reveal their new Autumn/Winter collection and to show that there's more to the brand than just luxe legwear.

Stocking Series, Part 1: Wartime Rationing and Nylon Riots

Nylon stockings made their debut in my hometown, Wilmington, Delaware, on October 24, 1939. That’s because Wallace Hume Carothers, the chemist who invented the synthetic material in 1935, worked for the DuPont company, which is headquartered there. In fact, the first test sale to DuPont employees’ wives took place at the company’s experimental station, just up the street from my childhood home. Not long before the 4,000 pairs of stockings sold out—in only three hours!—DuPont had had women modeling nylon hosiery at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, touting nylon as a synthetic fabric made of “carbon, water and air.” A prototype of that initial run (get it?) can be found in the Smithsonian’s collection.

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How to Store Tights and Stockings by Tying them into Simple Knots

Have you ever wanted to store tights neatly in a drawer? Read this guide for a simple knotting trick that I seriously just randomly thought of earlier today while cleaning my room!

Karl Mayer has developed new smooth, seamless and ladderproof warp-knitted hosiery, extending the range of products which can be made on its RDPJ and DJ raschel machine series.
“As the days begin to get shorter again and temperatures drop, the demand goes up for elegant legwear that keeps us warm – and this is when smooth, opaque hosiery comes into its own,” the German company explains.
“Until now, producing hosiery with a dense surface was dominated by weft knitting. This technology has become well established, although it is generally accepted that the disadvantages of producing a fabric from just one yarn system include the risk of laddering and unsightly body seams,” Karl Mayer says.

Tights are a necessity for every wardrobe, and they even have the power to expand your closet. What do we mean? Tights can take that dress you rocked during the summer and make it totally winter-appropriate. They can also change the look of last year’s wardrobe by adding a pop of color or texture. No matter where you live, we’re willing to bet that tights are essential accessories in your wardrobe. The hard part is choosing the right ones. But don’t worry—we’re here to help!