Fashion
The Most
Sophisticated
Way To
Wear Tights
The year was 1953 and if you were a
woman, a night on the town meant either
squeezing into a girdle or slipping on a
garter belt. Formal dress dictated that females wear such intimate, and often uncomfortable, articles of clothing. How else
could you hold up your nylons?
Allen Gant Sr., then running textile company
Glen Raven Mills, was inspired by his wife’s
lament. “How would it be if we made a pair
of panties and fastened the stockings to it?”
he asked Ethel. She stitched some crude
garments together, tried them on, and
handed the products to her husband.
“You got to figure out how to do this,” she
said. Allen brought his wife’s experiment into
the office, and with the help of his colleagues Arthur Rogers, J. O. Austin, and Irvin
Combs, developed what they later called
“Panti-Legs.” Their product–the world’s first
commercial pantyhose–began lining department store shelves in 1959.
Allen Gant Sr. had at least one satisfied customer, but the panty-stocking combo did
not grab most women’s attentions at first.
Though the convenience of not having to
wear a girdle or garter belt was a plus, what
helped pantyhose take hold was the rise of
the miniskirt in the mid-1960s.
For the fashion-conscious woman looking to
wear a skirt shorter than stockings are long,
pantyhose were the perfect fit. When iconic
models such as Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy
donned their miniskirts, demand for pantyhose exploded and women flocked to the
stores for pairs of their own.
Source: http://boingboing.net/2009/07/10/history-of-pantyhose.html
Source: http://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashi ۋ