[While I’m on vacation, I’m running a series of images with links to many old witness2fashion posts. Here’s a selection of articles sharing what I learned about stockings.]
Colored and textured tights were popular in the 1960’s, but brightly colored stockings and textured stockings were also worn in the 1920’s. [For further readings about stockings, rolled stockings, etc., links to earlier posts are provided throughout this one.]
Orange silk stockings match the orange skirt in this ad for Holeproof Hosiery. Delineator, October 1925.
Textured stockings were also worn with Twenties’ sportswear:
Textured hose from an article about rainwear; Delineator, April, 1929.
For a longer post showing 1920’s textured stockings from Sears, colored stockings, and other stocking fashions like the ones below, click here.
Gordon’s stockings ad, 1928.
Many manufacturers offered styles intended to make ankles look slim, or just to attract attention to the leg.
A chartreuse dress gets stockings to match in this ad for Arch Preserver Shoes. Delineator, June 1929.
Artist McClelland Barclay did a series of color illustrations for Holeproof Hosiery. Delineator; May, 1925. Notice how opaque these silk stockings for daytime are.
In the 1920’s, highly colored stockings could be almost opaque, as in these ads, but eventually sheer stockings became preferred for evening:
Models wear a range of sheer stocking shades in this 1929 ad for Realsilk Hosiery. Delineator, October 1929.
“They’re newer than sunburn. They’re newer than skin-tints. Yet they borrow from both. Overtones — the new hosiery shades — are a subtle blend of skin and costume colors…. Twenty-two of the most flattering hosiery colors ever launched.” — text of Realsilk ad, Oct. 1929.
Of course, the more sheer the stockings were, the less likely they were to survive several wearings, making them a luxury item.
A run in a sheer stocking ruins it; Lux soap ad, WHC, Feb. 1936. (Lux claimed to prevent stocking runs.)
For a much more complete article about women’s stockings in the 1920’s, click here.
By 1929, suntanned skin was coming into fashion, along with the sheer look.
From an ad for Realsilk Hosiery, April 1929. Delineator.
These shades are not very different from the stocking hues illustrated in 1936, when stockings could coordinate with either the costume or the shoe:
From a fashion advice article in Ladies’ Home Journal, October 1936. [Click here for more….]
These heavy duty silk stockings were to be worn while gardening. Ad for McCallum “service hose.” Delineator, April 1927. [For more about “Hosiery Ads with a Bit of Wit,” by the same artist, click here.]
“Mid-way of a dive . . two flawless legs, one flawless pair of hose are all that’s left to see….” From an 1927 ad for McCullum Hosiery. Delineator, August 1927.
(Swimming champion Annette Kellerman was arrested for swimming without covering her legs in 1907.)
Stockings were worn with bathing suits in the Nineteen-teens, but women started to bare their legs — or part of their legs — in the Twenties. Often, with bathing suits, they wore their stockings rolled:
Bathing suit, July 1925. Delineator magazine.
To read “Garters, Flappers, Rolled Stockings and Other Stocking Stories,” click here.
Lavender stockings match the lavender underwear in this 1927 ad for Ivory Flakes laundry soap. Delineator, May 1927.
Stockings in the 1920’s could also be embroidered, or otherwise decorated:
“A rose upon her shoulder, and a corresponding rose / Embroidered on the — well, the shin — of both her silken hose!” Nell Brinkley and Carolyn Wells. Dec. 1925.
To see more illustrations by Nell Brinkley, a woman cartoonist of the ‘Teens and Twenties, click here.
Young woman showing her undies and rolled stockings; photo dated 1918.
Four young women showing their bare knees and rolled stockings. That’s my mother wearing dark stockings with a light garter on the far right. Photo dated 1921.
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