What are Fully Fashioned Stockings?
Fully Fashioned stockings are the ultimate in luxury legwear. Made from non-stretch 100% luxury nylon yarn, these stockings are the very essence of the elegance of the past, and remain the favourite nylons of stocking aficionados.
Why are Fully Fashioned Stockings hard to come by?
One of the reasons why Fully Fashioned stockings are so hard to come by, is the way they are made. All Fully Fashioned Stockings are still woven on vintage Reading Machines. We're very lucky in the UK to have two of the four remaining Fully Fashioned companies worldwide!
The machines are huge and cumbersome, with a top speed of 30 pairs per hour and 15,000 fine needles that can break at any time! It's certainly far less cost effective than modern day circular knit machines.
The delicate nature of the nylon means that Fully Fashioned stockings manufactures end up with a lot of "seconds" or imperfect pairs that have caught or snagged during the process. All of our Fully Fashioned Nylons are packed in house to ensure they are perfect.
Should anything break on the machine our factory is lucky enough to have two further machines to rely on for parts, but this can cause a delay in production.
How are Fully Fashioned Stockings made?
The stockings are still seamed by hand using a industrial overlocker, if you look closely you can see the individual stitches. The seamstress works incredibly quickly, keeping an even tension on the stocking. After they've been seamed, the stockings go into the dye bath to be dyed.
Here you can see the flat stocking being ironed before the seam is added. All Fully Fashioned Stockings are made from 'greige' yarn and dyed to the desired colour. When the design involves a contrasting foot, seam and welt black yarn is used with the leg dyed later.
After dyeing the stockings are placed on a leg form to be steamed. The steam producing machine, an ancient bespoke unit with a huge copper boiler, looks like a contraption from a Jules Verne novel: very steampunk!
Following steaming, the stockings have a final inspection on an illuminated bench. Due to the manufacturing process there can be a difference of up to two inches in length for the same size, so the nylons are paired by hand.
Finally the stockings come to us to be packed and shipped out to you!
