While hosiery has been around ever since the time of the Egyptians, silk stockings weren't invented until the weaving technology arrived in Europe in the 1500s, and pantyhose didn't come into style until the 1960s. Sid Smith, former president and CEO of the National Association of Hosiery Manufacturers, provides the history of hosiery business including the invention of pantyhose.
In 1589, Queen Elizabeth was supposedly presented with her first pair of silk stockings. These were the sort of leg covering that involves the use of a garter and possibly a belt or corset to accompany it. The next major moment in pantyhose history didn't take place until the late 1930s, when DuPont laboratories invented nylon, a mixture of coal, tar, air, and water.
Obviously, somebody thought it would be a grand idea to turn this mixture into something to wear. When this fabric was accessible to women in hosiery form in 1940, more than four million pairs were acquired within the first few hours.
These same women were gnashing their teeth when their nylon was taken away from them during World War II, and were known to draw a line up the backs of their legs with an eyebrow pencil, imitating the seam on older styles of hose to make it appear as though they were wearing nylons. In the long run got their desirable material back after the war ended, and the next major step for pantyhose occurred when miniskirts and the sexual revolution came into fashion.
With hemlines inching up the thigh, hosiery manufacturers had to fiddle with the demands of fashion plates. In reaction to short skirts, they started knitting nylons a little longer, and joining them at the top. Pantyhose officially entered the world.
After pantyhose entered my world, I transitioned from being in fear of these nylon tubes to being fascinated by them. By the time I was in high school a steady supply of fashion magazines full of stories and photographs of glamorous models tripping about New York, in nylon, fueled my literary diet. I figured if Vogue said it was okay, it was.
My mother told me: "Pantyhose makes you look finished," she emphasized. And, in my prom pictures, you can see the opaque, reinforced toe of my buff nylons sticking out of the pink satin sandal.
In recent years, almost every job I've had has had a dress code that necessitates pantyhose. Of all the jobs that require the wearing of the nylons, my position as a sales clerk at a suburban department store was the most demanding. The dress code was extremely strict: Employees must dress professionally. Men are to wear a suit and women are to wear dress clothes to work. Pantyhose with a skirt or dress are required. Sandals worn during the summer months must be worn together with by some sort of foot covering.
A few weeks into work, I was determined to risk it, to see if my youthful legs could pass unnoticed in the sea of synthetic fiber-swaddled varicose veins. Within five minutes, a white-haired sales clerk pulled me into a dressing room and hissed at me to run over to the lingerie section.
"Quick, if you buy yourself a pair now, maybe no one will see you," she implored, a look of panic in her eyes. I wrenched my arm out of her grasp and stalked off toward hosiery.
Currently, I'm temping in an office where by and large young women work. The dress is "business professional" four days of the week, and "business casual" on Friday. My second day of work, I wore a skirt suit and heels, but the muggy June morning kept me from pulling on a pair of hosiery. Once I got to the office, I noticed that everyone was wearing them. It was like a tame version of a David Lynch movie: somehow, despite the heat, each woman here had opted for the nylon. Even the women who opted for long skirts or pants wore knee-highs with their shoes.
No one has said anything to me yet, and I don't know if it's a requirement or if it's just an unwritten law that "business professional" means "pantyhose required," twelve months a year, in bitter icy months as well as sweltering, muggy ones..
So I started asking women who work in offices what they think of pantyhose. Most of them were more than a little shocked.
I asked Alice an accountant whether or not she thought there was a differing opinion between the young women and older women in her office about wearing pantyhose. She gave me a look of disbelief and responded, "It's not really something we talk about."
And indeed, it is a strange topic to ask women about. After all, pantyhose do contain the element of the panty—a sliver of cotton attached to the crotch—and is therefore almost a taboo subject.
Women who worked in department stores were slightly more understanding. Andrea, a Chanel representative at Lord & Taylor, was wandering around the hosiery section one afternoon. Youthful and hip in spite of her uniform, Andrea said she usually wears pantyhose under pants according to the store's dress code policy. She said if she wears a skirt when she goes out, she wears either tights or fishnets, or goes barelegged. She added that most of her friends dress the same way.
"Normally I'm a pantyhose person, she said. " I like wearing nude pantyhose."
At a diner, two women, one young and one old, talked hastily about pantyhose and their dress code as they closed the register for the day. Susan, said it didn't bother her a bit that she has to wear pantyhose to work. Her counterpart—who refused to give her name and age and suspiciously asked if I had permission from the store to interview them—said she didn't mind, either. "There, you have an old view and young one," she said.
When I asked them if they wear pantyhose when they go out on their own, both of them replied "yes."
That seems to be the consensus with working women: The majority enjoys pantyhose for the workday and also wears them when they're having fun. And maybe that's where the passage to adulthood enters—it's something greater than merely looking like one,
While I got dressed for work last week, I told myself that's what is important—being an adult, accepting the fact that sometimes the adult privileges we think will be fun simply are not. Last Tuesday, I considered my options, and reached for an old pair, black, amazingly still run-free and put them on and went to work.
The conclusion of the story is that I have been wearing pantyhose and still wear them today in any environment.
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