Nothing but Seamed Stockings

[Scarlet Belle]

Oops. I have no idea what that site is!! This link should take you there.

http://www.whatkatiedid.com/src/security.php

[ITG]

Okay that works. Thanks.

[ITG]

Liquid stocking! Now that's something I've never heard of. I wonder how hard that stuff would be to get off...maybe it sweats off as you jitterbug. Thanks for educating me on something new/old (new to me).

[The Bingstress]

Hey Lauren, thanks for that great info on the origins of tanning! I knew the "sunkissed" look became all the rage in the '60s, but I didn't realize that the trend had started several decades earlier. That was a neat bit of trivia. (If only my high school history class had been this enthralling!) Please do post some pictures, if you come across anything in your collection.

And Scarlet, your mom's the bomb for tipping us off to "liquid stocking." I thought all those "tan in a bottle" products were recent innovations, and here it's been around for more than 50 years! I have a question, though: When the ladies would slather on the tan-colored make-up for their legs and then draw the stocking seam with eyeliner, would they wear hose at all? Or were they not wearing stockings at the time because of the war effort? (E.g., all elastic and nylon was going to make parachutes.)

Hugs & blessings,
The Bingstress

[Lauren]

here's some pics from ebay on suntan ads:
from 1948

from 1942

Here's some that look 40's and 50's


but go figure, I can't find fashion plate pics!

Lauren

[Scarlet Belle]

hey gals! I had a chat to my mum yesterday about the "liquid stockings". She said it was the funniest thing going into town and every second lady had them drawn on, but it didnt seem strange because so many were doing it. It was during strict rationing when stocking were just not available. I understand rationing in the US was not too severe, and in Australia it was only a little worse. Of course poor ol' Britain copped the worst of it, I just dont know how those poor people survived. Not to mention the pathetic amount of food they were allowed to purchase, but the poor ladies had it as there duty to look gorgeous and groomed "for the war effort", but were not allowed ANY cosmetics, except what could be found on the blackmarket.

A great movie to look for if you can find it is "Hope and Glory" - a British movie that looks at the home front during the war. Also, the BBC put a FANTASTIC "reality series" out called "The 1940's House", where a modern family had to live in London as though it were during the war.
There is also a book to go with this series that tells you all about life on the home front in great detail. I will see if there is anywere you can get them...

Lauren, those piccies are great!!! I just love old advertising.

[Bobbi B.]

Oh, not painted-on stockings!

My Mom is the youngest of five girls, and graduated High School not too long after the War. One of her better stories concerns that very product....

...Alas, cosmetic products in the '40s were not quite so clever as the ones we have today. If your boyfriend happened to be, oh, a sailor and he wore his fine dress whites to take you out, you had better not dance too closely or he would be the one with makeup on his legs! It never totally set, even with a dusting of powder, and really really showed up against white. This in turn would at the very least result in stern looks from your parents when he took you home: "Dear, I'm not sure you should be seeing so much of him..."
(All the more reason to pick beaus from the AAF, if you ask me!)

Mom says you about had to have a friend paint the lines down the back. It was almost impossible to do them straight without help. With four sisters and the usual stresses, it was sometimes difficult to get them straight even with help if you asked a sister you were spatting with.

I think I'll stick with the real thing -- at least until they start rationing silk and nylon!

Bobbi B.

[Scarlet Belle]

Love your story Bobbi!!! My mum has similar ones, usually involving rain or sweat and makeup running down your legs.

What a scream.

Welcome on board to you as well.

[Bobbi B.]

Originally posted by ITG
[...]No cuban heel. I'm not sure how I feel about the cuban heels as it seems like it'd come up out of the shoe and look odd.

Isn't the heavier, darker reinforced area supposed to show? It's way too high to be hidden in any typical 1940s shoe design I've seen.

Cuban heels always looked sort of, oh, exotic to the point of being a little too much, in a Carmen Miranda way. The sort of thing one wore to drive men mad but never, ever to the office. (Then again, I'm notoriously mousy, especially before sunset). These days, if you're doing the look anyway, well -- why not? It's fun to see the boys make like the wolf in a Tex Avery cartoon!

Bobbi B.

[jitterbugdoll]

Reviving this thread...

'Cuban heel' refers to the shape of the reinforced area on the heel of the stocking. Real stockings, called fully fashioned stockings, come in a couple of 'shapes': Cuban or Havana heel, and French point. Cuban heels are squared off, and French points come to a point. Both areas of reinforcement show above your shoe, but that’s okay—it lets everyone know you are wearing the real deal, and not a cheap copy! Basically, in the 1940s-1950s, stockings were knitted on machines and originally started as flat pieces of material. They were then wrapped around a leg shaped board and stitched closed--hence the seam and reinforced foot. They came in lots of colors--nude, coffee, black, and blackfoot, or nude with black seam and foot. All colors were worn in the 1940s, and the two heel shapes were worn equally (because of the manufacturing process, stockings *did not* exist without a Cuban or French heel. They may have been just as sexy back then as they are now, but they were not considered inappropriate or trashy because that's the *only* way they came!)

There are also RHTs, or reinforced heel toe stockings; these came into play in the 1950s with the invention of the circular knitting machine. However, they were quite expensive initially, and so many women continued to purchase fully fashioned stockings.

Essentially, modern seamed imitations add a seam for decoration--therefore they usually do not add the Cuban heel/reinforced foot. The advantage to wearing authentic fully fashioneds is that they are much more stable. In other words, because they are shaped to the leg and have that reinforced foot/heel, they tend not to move around as much, and your seams stay straight! Also, I find that they fit the leg better in general (you do need to purchase the proper size, or they will stretch some and start to slide down), and they least ten times longer than modern stockings made with Lycra. I usually eek 10-20 wears out of a single pair!

The best store I have ever found, in terms of price, quality and customer service, is Magnolia Hoisery. I usually wear either the beige or coffee-colored stockings, depending on the rest of my ensemble!