Nylons Were a Fifties Fashion Staple

Initially worn as a means to keep warm, early legwear choices merely consisted of scratchy woolen, cotton, linen or silk fabrics.

Prestige Nylons 1957

Women's stocking industry was revolutionized in 1939 when DuPont Chemical Company chemist, Wallace Hume Carothers, developed a synthetic fabric named nylon.

Cheap, durable, stretchy, and sheer nylon stockings were first introduced by DuPont at 1939's New York World's Fair. They quickly became a high demand product.

After ramping up production in their new plant in Seaford, Delaware, DuPont sold 64 million pairs of nylons in their first year.

In 1942, nylon fibers became very scarce as they were needed for wartime parachutes and tents.The remaining or contraband nylon stockings soon became prized possessions.

With the end of the war in 1945, nylon stocking demand returned with a vengeance.

DuPont Nylons Ad

Early stockings were fastened to garters on open bottom girdles for a smooth and non-sagging look. 

If the women chose not to wear a girdle, they attached their nylon stockings to a garter belt worn around their waist and under a full slip. These nylons were knit in a manner that required a cotton seam down the back.

With the invention of circular knit machines, seamless stockings became available in 1950.

Fine Feathers Nylon Hosiery

Please consider this brief history of Agilon Stocking manufacturing from 1956.

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Not So Naughty Nighties

The restrictive, bordering on prudish, social mores of the 1950's relegated Frederick's of Hollywood's lingerie advertising to the back pages of women's magazines. 

Respectable fifties' housewives purchased their undergarments from the equally proper sales lady behind the counter of their local department store. 

Even browsing through the Sears and Roebuck lingerie pages was considered a bit risque and ordering from a Frederick's of Hollywood catalog was downright scandalous.  Or so it would seem.

Frederick's of Hollywood Advertisement

It appears a good many of the supposedly puritanical fifties' matrons were buying Frederick's of Hollywood's provocative lingerie. Frederick's innovative merchandising approach made them the market leader in women's lingerie sales for forty years.

An astute businessman, Frederick Mellinger founded his Hollywood, California company in 1947 and is remembered for his invention of the push-up bra, padded bras, and padded girdles.

His use of celebrity models such as Rita Hayworth, Bettie Page, and Debra Paget to publicize his products was instrumental in bringing sexy lingerie to the masses.