Colourful Seamed Stockings
Are you tempted by our colourful seamed stockings but want to keep your look period correct? I let you know what you can get away with!
If you're new to retro style hosiery, or hosiery of any kind, then the terminology can be confusing - but help is at hand!
Check out our guide to hosiery and all will be revealed.
1950s Pink Seamed Stockings made in Derbyshire
If you have seen my video on neutral seams, you know there is a bit of controversy about what was and what wasn't worn back in the 1940s and 1950s. When it comes to colourful seamed stockings, the controversy is even greater because some people believe that colourful seamed stockings are not period-correct, and that they weren't worn at all. A few years ago, I made a video about our green seamed stockings, and I showed you a pair of vintage green silk stockings dating back to the 1930s.
Today I’ve got a pair of pink fully fashioned stockings, dating back to the 1950s which are made by Brettle's. Brettle's was based in Belper, a small town in England of just over 20,000 people (today). Brettle's was founded in 1786, and in the nineteenth century was the area’s largest employer with 1,000 people on its books. It’s claim to fame? Queen Victoria wore a pair of their stockings for her coronation. Alas, the factory closed in 1987 and Brettle's became part of Courtalds. Hosiery manufacturing remained in the area and both Pretty Polly and Aristoc were under the Courtalds brand. It came as some surprise a few years ago when the factory was shut down and production moved offshore, especially for the machinists who were told just before the factory closed for it’s Summer break. Having been extremely busy for the previous months, they thought the company had been doing really well, but it turns out the extra stock was just to ‘bridge the gap’ before offshore production took over (in case you're wondering I'm trying to be very diplomatic here: oh the tea!).
Stocking Talk
Since making the video about the green seamed stockings, one of our customers has got in touch with a fabulous story! A member of their family used to work in a fully fashioned factory in the fifties, which also used to make socks for school girls. The socks were made in lots of different colours, so her and her friend took some of the bright coloured yarn to make colourful seamed stockings. When it comes to fully fashioned stockings, the seams were actually sewn using a overlocker sewing machine. To add a contrast seam, you take the stocking and add a second seam over the top in a different coloured yarn. Which is what these ladies were doing. They were just taking a normal pair of fully fashioned and overlocking it in a different colour, which would have been very unusual and pretty unique. Unfortunately, they got fired because of it, but when people say colourful seamed stockings didn't exist back in the day, we can tell you a hundred percent true that they did. Albeit very, very rare.
Why were colourful seamed stockings so rare? One of my favourites books is A Draper's Encyclopedia, which dates back to the early fifties. It has a big section on stockings, about how to sell stockings, and the change over from silk through to rayon to the new nylon. It says, at that time, the average American woman only bought six pairs of fully fashioned stockings a year. Of course, in the UK, it would have been less than that because we were still bouncing back from the effects of World War II. If you could only buy six pairs of stockings a year, you would have worn a pair of stockings that would have gone with everything really. So that's one of the reasons why women would have gone for a neutral tone. If stockings were cheaper and more disposable, then maybe colourful seams would have been made.
Shop Colourful Seamed Stockings
Green Seamed Stockings
Did green stockings exist in the 19540s and 1950s? Yes they did, in the 1920s and 1930s too
If you're new to retro style hosiery, or hosiery of any kind, then the terminology can be confusing - but help is at hand!
Check out our guide to hosiery and all will be revealed.
