Early hosiery

Going far back into history hosiery was originally just animal skin bound to the foot and leg to protect them and keep them warm, woven cloth came next cut and stitched to crudely fit the shape of a person legs there as little stretch with these fabrics thus producing a very ill-fitting garment these were often called (Cut Up's) probably tied in some way at the top to hold it in place worn by both men and women.

The first knitting socks appeared around 3000 years ago in the Middle East where knitting is reported as been invented, a concise history of knitting is slightly unclear, it looks like knitted garments spread into Europe and beyond by the trade main routes, initially as traded goods then people started to try and understand and recreate these items.

My history jumps most of these years and start in the 1500 because my interest is with the history of sheer hosiery more than the history of knitting.

The advent and development of the stocking frame

This was really the first big innovation for hosiery making and also the first mechanical machine in the textile industry. Invented by William Lee of Calverton near Nottingham in 1589 it is said the William Lee who was a Vicar studied his fierce whilst she was knitting and worked out how the needles moved and translated this into a mechanical movement which a machine can reproduce.

The first machines used wool with 8 needles producing a course woollen garment which only needed to be sewn down the back to produce the stockings, mechanical knitting was referred to as framework knitting. 

William Lee tried to get a patent for his new machine from Queen Elizabeth I which was refused; it's thought on the ground that this machine would harm the employment security of the UK hand knitting industry.

William then made further improvements to his frame adding another 12 needles by 1598 these frames could also knit silk stockings taking this new and improved machine back to Queen Elizabeth for another patent submission which was again turn down. Disappointed with the reception which his knitting frame receive in the UK William with his brother James moved to France with 9 frame workers and 9 frames setting up the frames Rouen (France ) and started producing stocking.
William Lee Died in France in 1614 and his brother James returned to London where he sold off most of the Frames, then moved to Thoroton, near Nottingham Lee's apprentice John Aston (or Ashton) who originally was a miller by profession added some more improvements known as the " Divider" and slowly establishing an East Midlands as the second centre for frame knitting in England.

The Worshipful Company of Framework Knitter

Was one of the Livery Companies in the City of London incorporated by Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, on 13th June 1657, reissued as a Royal Charter in 1663. There are about 108 of these guild or Livery Companies covering many trades some of their original can be traced back to medieval periods, there purpose was to bring together people from the same trade to help and protect them and maintain standards within the industry. The Worshipful Company of Framework Knitters is still active today with its own web site. www.frameworkknitters.co.uk
The next addition to the knitting frame was carried out in 1758 by Jedediah Strutt who introduced an attachment for the frame called the "Derby rig which would allows the frame to also knit cotton making even finer stockings.

Most frames were used by individuals and family concerns as a cottage industry, around 1812 it is estimated that there was over 25,000 frames in use, most frames were not always own by the frame workers a lot frames would be leased.
The Frame knitting industry originally started in London alongside the Protestant Huguenots silk weavers who had come over from France to avoid persecution from the Catholic in the 16th and 17th Centuries setting up in Spitalfields London, which soon became known as 'weaver town'. The frame worker and the hosiery industry were now moving always from London and becoming based in the West Midlands.

By the end of the nineteenth century most of these frame working would slowly die out because they were uneconomic to operate as the larger mill took over and could use the principle of mass production to produce even cheaper cotton isle and wool stocking. Just a very small number of workers would remain in independent use until the end of the century.
In 1771, Richard Arkwright installed the water powered knitting frame in his cotton mill at Cromford, Derbyshire, on the River Derwent this was a predecessor to one powered by horses which when out of use because it require too many horses to power it and they had to be changed frequently, this was the start of the industrial revolution (1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840) which changed the way many things were manufactured.
Silk hosiery manufacture was slightly different and would also remain in smaller manufactures for some time to come

Hosiery used to be worn equally by men and women.

Today we think more about hosiery, stocking and tights mainly as a female item of clothing this was not always the case. for several hundred years it was worn equally by men and women.

If you look backwards into fashion history you see that men wore long cotton or silk stocking which finished above their knee britches shown in this drawing of Richard Sackville 1589 -1624 with his stocking tied with a ribbon to hold them in place.
Britches started to lengthened from around 1800 like the ones worn by John Hancock in 1793 and became less flamboyant, these slowly evolved into what we know as trousers today,  the need for wearing long stocking decreased for men because their legs were now covered by the trouser legs and hosiery shortened and become more like long sock which men are more familiar with today.

For ladies like Rose-adla-de-ducreux her stocking would be very similar to the gentleman's made in silk been tied with a ribbon slightly above her knee

 Lady Rose's servants and the majority of ladies around this time would still have to wear wool stocking of every day and maybe if they were lucky they would have a pair of cotton isle stockings for the Sunday best, as with all nice lades at this time had long floor length hem line you would not be able to see their feet and stockings of course wear today.


 Victorian stocking although unseen were not always plain as you would think this 1880 advert shows some of the designs of stockings which were available at the time for lady, they were made in both cotton and silk and as the advert says available in all desirable colours yellow, lavender, gold and even sky blue, some were made in drop stitch and others  ribbed cotton lisle embroidered on the leg.

Why an alternative to real silk would be desirable

Real silk has always been very expensive partly because the main producers were in the far east and North America and the silk had to be transported over long distances, by the end of the Nineteen century several other factors started to effect the cost of silks and pushing the price up.

a) The silkworm disease in Europe (1855 -1870).
b) The Taiping Rebellion in China (1850-1864).

So there was great interest in finding a cheaper alternative to natural silk and of course for anyone who was successful there would clearly be a handsome profit to be made.

Viscose - The new wonder fibre

Viscose was discovered by Joseph Wilson Swan in 1850, an English chemist who was working on developing the electric light bulb. Swan needed a fine fibre for the filament of his new electric light bulb; he first came up with a fibre made from cellulose nitrate which is derived from the naturally occurring cellulose made from extracted wood pulp.
Hannah Swan became interested in this fibre and started using it for her crochet work, Hannah called this fabric 'artificial silk'.
Unfortunately cellulose nitrate was not found to be a practical solution for Joseph for his electric bulb because viscose was slightly explosive after more work he found that a carbonized bamboo filament had significantly better results for him.


Work continued on this new artificial silk fibre by other scientist Count Hilaire de Chardonnet (French chemist) achieving the first full scale production of Viscose in 1889, his fabrics of artificial silk caused a sensation at the Paris Exhibition.
Two years later he built the first commercial rayon plant at Besancon, France, however his cloth was also slightly inflammable and sales of it declined when the public realized this in flammability of from it.
Until three British inventors, Cross, Bevan and Beadle, patented a way of making a safe artificial silk in 1892.
Apart from fabric Cross, Bevan and Beadle, tried to make solid object out of viscose like umbrella handles with Viscose which turned out to be too brittle, further development made it possible to spin the fibre into thread for embroidery and trimmings probably this work was carried out by Courtaulds textile company. The term "spin" is often used in the context of Viscose , this is not the same technique as the in the textile mill with cotton or wool.

The British patents for artificial silk were taken over by Courtaulds in 1904 for approximately £25,000, they produced the first commercial fibre in 1905 in a factory on the outskirts of Coventry (UK).

The invention of Nylon

The invention of Nylon

Like many great invention, nylon was a by-product of the work started back in 1926 in the Du Point laboratories

Dr. Wallace Hume Caruthers joined the Du Point laboratories in 1928 as head of organic chemistry research at the Wilmington laboratory Delaware.

Wallace Carothers was born on April 27 1896 started his career at Capital City Commercial College in Des Moines, Lowa, in a program of accountancy and secretarial administration, whist teaching accountancy at the Tarkio College in Missouri he studied science, as an undergraduate student was appointed head of chemistry, Although a talented chemist the real reason for his appointment was the shortage of suitable people due to World War 1.

He received his PhD from the University of Illinois and then became a professor at Harvard where he first started his research into chemical structures of polymers in1924.
By 1928 the DuPont chemical company opened an Organic Chemicals research laboratory for the development of artificial materials, deciding that basic research was the way to go - not a common path for a company to follow at the time, it's reported that DuPont were investing $20,000 per month into this laboratory.
DuPont’s Charles Stine (Stine known for his work on developing TNT established the Organic Chemicals Division within the DuPont Chemical Department in 1916 by 1930 Charles Stine was made a vice president and director of DuPont in 1930) he recruited Dr. Carothers for the fundamental research program that Stine was then organizing. Elmer K. Bolton, Carothers’s immediate boss, asked him to investigate the chemistry of an acetylene polymer that might lead to a synthetic rubber.
April 1930, Carothers’ team discovered neoprene synthetic rubber and synthesized the first polyester super polymer, the forerunner of nylon.
April 1930 and a  lab assistant working with esters–compounds which yield an acid and an alcohol or phenol in reaction with water–discovered a very strong polymer that could be drawn into a fibre. This polyester fibre had a low melting point, however. Carothers changed course and began working with amides, which were derived from ammonia.
 1935 Carothers found a strong polyamide fibre that stood up well to both heat and solvents. He evaluated more than 100 different polyamide before choosing one for development.
Dr. Carothers married Helen Sweetman in 1936, a colleague of his at DuPont. A year later, April 29th 1937 he tragically committed suicide alone in a hotel in Philadelphia after a lifelong bout with depression.
Nylon changed the way people dressed worldwide and rendered the term "silk stocking"–once an epithet directed at the wealthy elite–obsolete.

 The very first nylon stocking

Nylon stocking were brought to market remarkably quickly, in part due to Dupont's learning from there experience with rayon and missing out on that market.

After determining that low-cost production were possible and settling on a target market (women's hosiery), Dupont produced a preliminary batch of nylon staple to confirm that the nylon hose would be practical, the sample was delivered to a commercial knitting mill under conditions of extreme secrecy (the research chemist who delivered the samples to the mill even slept with the sample on the train).
It took two test runs and a little further development to convince Dupont to build a pilot plant in Wilmington, then finally a full-scale production facility in Seaford Delaware on the 30 th of March 1939 Dupont made an agreement with ICI (Imperial Chemical Company) for the exclusive rights to produce nylon in the UK, in conjunction with ICI rivals Courtaulds, together they set up a third company called British Nylon Spinners Ltd (BNS)
The very first pair of nylon stocking when on sale as a small trial in a department store in Wilmington, Delaware (U.S.A) made by Du Point on the 27 October 1939 just to test the market.
They were a huge success with ladies coming from miles around to buy the new nylon stockings, the store sold out in a few hours as news spread about the area about these stockings.
On the 3rd of September 1939 Britain and France declared war on Germany following the German invasion of Poland a month before Du point launched their nylon stockings.
January 1940 ICI transferred its exclusive rights for a fee over to British Nylon Spinners (BNS) to manufacture and distribution of nylon yarn in the UK, because British was at war the priority of the production of nylon was given over to war production of rope and parachutes along with other war related product instead of yarn for the production of stockings.
By the 15th of May 1940 the USA the first nylons stocking when on sale to the general public for the first time selling over 72,000 pairs in the first day alone.
The total sales for the first year are estimated to have been around 64 million pairs With these new nylon stocking du point captured 30% of hosiery market, although there wear plenty of nylons available for the ladies in the  United States very few pairs would find their way across the Atlantic Ocean and onto the legs of the  UK ladies. This was because of the success the Germans were having in cutting Britain off from America with their "U" boats fleet sinking an average of 22,000 tons of ships each month from the merchant fleet. Only essential supplies to keep the British war effort going was brought across this dangerous route nylon stocking were not one of the essentials needed in the UK.


This fun photo which might have been staged by the photographer shows a lady who look so pleased to be able to buy a pair of stocking has decided to put them on whist sat in pubic on the side walk.
The British Nylon Spinners had their first production plant in operation in Coventry by 23 January 1940, it's total output of nylon gong to fill government contracts for war materials, a second plant Stow Market was also confined to government production mainly nylon for parachute fabric.
With very few pairs of nylon stocking to wear ladies had to "make do and mend" a term which would become all too familiar as the war progressed in the UK.

By 1941 clothing rationing come in to effect in the UK, The government controlled the styles of clothes and how they were made to reduce the quantity of raw materials require to make them this was called the CC41  standard, the number of individual items a person could buy was restricted by issuing clothing coupons.

Stockings were rationed like all clothing (except second-hand clothes) a lady required 2 clothing coupons to buy 1 pair of stocking out of her total allocation of 66 coupons per year (1941) by the end of rationing the allocation had fallen down to 36 per year cotton, silk and wool stocking all came under the CC41 regulations.

The number of coupons an person needed to buy a item?

The number of clothing coupons which were needed to buy an item was published by the board of trade in newspapers like the one on the left.
The US government followed with their rationing on the 7th December 1941 forming the war production board (WPB), this was to regulate the production and allocation of materials.
Nylon now came under the control of this board the amount of fibre used in civilian clothing was now restricted so by that 1943 it was nearly impossible to buy a pair of the new nylons in a store in the USA.
Du point ceased production of nylon stockings and switched over to making parachutes, air-plane cords and ropes, it's Seaford plant made parachutes and b-29 bomber tires with mainly a female work force as many men when into the armed force.

It also has to be mentioned that at this time Germany had also developed a man-made fibre in top secret called Perlon a synthetic fibre similar to the American nylon - this was invented by the German chemist Dr. Paul Schlack at I.G.-Farben. They also had a test run to make Perlon into ladies stocking after which it was declared to be a military defense material under the code name "Perluran" be one again production was diverted mainly into the German war preparation and later the war itself.

Join the forces and you would have some stocking issued

For the ladies joining one of the armed forces then things were lightly different as you would be issued with a uniform which would include 3pairs of cotton lisle stockings and two suspender belts/corset, it's probable with time that the female service personnel would sneak in their own hosiery and undergarments but this was against regulations.
There are stories of the female work force at the top secrete Bletchley park drying their underwear next to the hot computers, which was of course was very much looked down upon.

USA enters the war and there are now a few more pair's nylons around.

With the build up a American troops in preparation for the invasion of Europe a small number of nylon stocking were brought into the UK by these GI's.
Compared to the potential demand this was still a very small number, mainly they would be given out to their girlfriends.
At this time they might have been a small number of nylons made during the war years these would be mainly for proper gander purposes it very difficult to be certain about this.

The lengths that women would go to wear a pair of stockings.

These are a very rare pair of nylon stocking as you can see they are new and unworn made in the UK by, they have the CC41 mark in the top right of each stocking, close examination shows these stocking are not as sheer as you imagine.
Now with a shortage of stocking ladies would re-sort to wearing the hosiery they already had store away for special occasion pre-wartime, these m would have been silk stockings, cotton lisle or rayon.

Life without stockings

The majority of ladies would not have nylons to wear  from an estimation only 1% of ladies wore nylons regularly the others had to become very resourcefully because  it was thought that a lady without stockings was improperly dressed if she was out in public.
Ladies started to draw a line down the back of their leg to achieve the look of wearing stocking using an eye brow pencil or something similar to give this seamed effect.

For drawing a seam on your e.g. Max factor brought out a devise which helped to guide her to create a straight seam down the back of her leg ( left photo) instead of doing y or have someone ( left photo ) do it for you.
Occasionally ladies would even try to colour their legs with gravy browning mixed with a cream other home-made formula were developed using other house hold products to produce the desired effect, the problem I am told is if it rained when she was wearing some of these it would end up be a streaky mess down her leg.
A multitude of commercial products were also marketed towards the end of the war for colouring your legs to look like they were wearing stockings max factor brought out a cream around this time to simulate stockings which was applied in a similar way to normal face foundation today.
Path'e news made a news real showing this cream been applied by a lady to her legs, cosmetic were also rationed in war time so the max factor cream might also have been hard to come by another way to simulate a seam of a stocking was have a line tattooed on the back of their legs, this was more often done by wife of seamen, who were used to seeing tattoos on their husbands as a long tradition with seamen. Today a few ladies still decide to have a tattoo seam done.
For the ladies who did have a pair of nylons to wear the worst thing that could happen was when she got a ladder or run in them as nylons were so precious products were marketed to help her minimize the damage by sealing the thread.

One such product was called lad stick manufactured
by Griffith & associates Ltd of Bristol, most likely made in the latter half of the 40's.

Instruction are printed on the back of the packet telling the lady to moisten the tip of the stick in her mouth and rub it onto the top and bottom of the run, it also says that the substance used is not harmful for her, it's the same principle which was used more recently with nail varnish.

Wartime black market nylons.

With the general shortage of nylon stocking  it's inevitable that an illegal black market would soon sprung up it is very unclear how all the stocking found their way onto the black market,  the cost of a pair of nylon stocking on the black market could be as much as $20 in the U.S.A.
There are several true stories about nylons stocking been made especially for the black market in the U.S.A, one is where thirteen cases of nylon yarn was stolen in transit to a parachute factory eventually ending up at a hosiery mill where the yarn was made up into stocking.
Another story was about a silk mill who had a contract to make glider tow rope and with a little false accounting managed to make a large quantity of yarn disappear, subsequently making this yarn up into nylon stocking.
Other cases included rayon stockings been sold as "nylons". The documentation for these along with other examples is held at the smithsonian.org there must have been many more black market nylons stocking schemes which when undetected throughout the war years.

Post war years and we have nylons again

Production of nylon yarn for stocking started up again in the UK in December 1946 the production of yarn was controlled as it was destined for the export market to earn valuable money for the country, going to only to a few hosiery knitters who were on a what was called the " Preferred list" Aristoc been one of them along with I. R Morley's these companies were chosen because of its large number of contact they had abroad to market the nylon efficiently. Nylon stocking for home consumption was still restricted as the clothing rationing did not end until 1951.

British nylon spinners had the capacity supply most industries with their requirements for nylon yarn, at that time it had the largest factor floor in Europe with approx. 15 looms going all day, clothing might be the exception this as rationing remained in force until 1951.

In the USA the production of nylon yarn and also stockings which were destined to be sold to the ladies started again in 1946 it took a little while before the production was satisfying demand and in several cities including Pittsburgh fights broke out in the street when 40,000 ladies queued up for only 13,000 pairs of nylon, called "the nylon riots" in the popular press.






By the mid 1950's nylons were readily available again for any lady the buy whenever they wanted a pair, these stockings were very much sheerer than what was seen in previous decades with a much larger range of shades.

The hosiery manufacture by now had time to buy brand new knitting machines and install them into their mill like the one above these were American Reading machines.

A new century and a change in women fashions

With the sad death of Queen Victoria in 1901 fashions would now starting changing the Victorian hour glass silhouette was going out of fashion been replaced with the "S-bend" or "S-curve" silhouette which in reality was not as survivor as in this advertising illustration for corsets suggests.

The ladies of Britain now had to play catch-up to the continental ladies with their fashions  and the new  exciting styles coming out of Paris and other European capitals.
Fashion had now taken on a whole new look based on Orientalism with its soft drapery, and bold prints. The lines of Russian peasant costume appeared in hip length tunics, a style that lasted throughout the next few years.



 The hem line at the start of the century was still at the floor and would remain there for around the next 10 years. There really was not any reason for this to change at this time the fashion designers wear concentration on the silhouette,  textures and patterns of the fabrics. 

Artificial silk goes into full production

The first artificial silk stocking is reported to have been made in 1910 although it seems more likely that full production did not start until a year or so latter. There were three different method of producing artificial silk the American Viscose Corporation at used the cheapest method at their  production plant.

Sheer stocking are now a lot more affordable

For the next few years there is little information available about ladies hosiery of this period and not many examples.Designers and couturiers first raised hemlines several inches above the floor in 1915 when they created the war time “crinoline" this was a full slightly shortened skirt.
Many women greeted this new look with pleasure and saw it as more practical and better suited to a time especially as a lot of women were having to entering the workforce at unprecedented levels to replace the men who were now volunteering to join the army and go to the front in France and Belgium.
The higher hemlines exposed a gap between the tip of the boot and a skirt them. The look distracted from the overall appearance of an outfit, so the high button boots of the past were abandoned. Not only did women's hemlines rise to mid-calf length, but more exciting yet, ladies wore these shorter styles with sexy heeled shoes with that featured a slight curve and flesh toned silk stockings,
Not that high button boots and corsets were not totally abandoned instead these style given greater flexibility for comfort.


The new Spirella corset offered a greater range of movement than the old fashioned type and purported to improve posture to benefit overall health.

By 1915 ladies were starting to wear sleeveless dresses and as this advert on the right says that fashion say that underarms must be as smooth as the face.
With the hem line now going up it and the legs now showing it would not be long before pressure from advertisements would also lead to ladies shaving their legs and thus allowing them to start wearing increasingly sheerer stockings.
After the armistice, November 11, 1918, there was great relief that the war was over recovery by society  was difficult as there was also a underlining sadness for all the people who were lost, and now dearly missed , combined with the devastating effects of the 1918 flu pandemic which almost brought the world to its knees people just  felt crushed and cynical as they moved into the peace time a new feeling of freedom mixed with disillusionment combined to create a new kind of culture - a live for today, devil-may-care society that led into the roaring 20's and the distinctive look, sound, and fashion of the jazz age.

Dupont start to make silk (artificial silk)

Dupont (a large us chemical company) became very interested in artificial silk as they had initially missed out on this product ten years before, there first attempted to enter this market was to buy out the American Viscose Company, the AVC offered Dupont 60% of their company for $30 million, Dupoint thought this was too much as American Viscose Company total assists were only values at £10 million.
Dupont finally entered into an agreement with a French company Comptoir Des Textiles Artificiels who was the largest European manufacturer of Rayon at the time with plants in France Italy, Belgium and Switzerland who transferred there owner patents to make artificial silk by the Count Hilaire de Chardonnet method over to Dupoint in return for $4 million.
Dupoint set up a USA company called Dupont Fibre silk company.

Ladies now decided they had to shave their legs.

Ladies started shaving they legs mainly for aesthetic reason when the hem line started rising around the time of WW1, initially they would have use men's razors then razors especially designed for ladies came onto the market. The first adverts for ladies razors appeared in around 1922 or 1924 (other dates do crop up for this even like 1925 and 1926).

Artificial silk has its name changed to Rayon

Manufactures thought that the word "artificial was not very appealing name , a committee from the United states department of commerce and various commercial associations was set up to decide upon a new name they first hold a competition with a very large prize for the time of $1,000 for the best name of the 10,000 entries no one name was thought to be right.
So the committee decided to choose their own word, rayon taken from the French for "rays of light" so from 1924 "artificial silk" was known as rayon ,like all names there is sometime a sleigh turn certainty about why they decided upon a name it could also be rayon(sun = ray,  on = cotton) accounting for 70% of the sales of stocking. Dupont fibre silk company decided to rename the company to the Dupont rayon company in 1925.
Although we think of the roaring 20's was all about flappers (the young fashionable ladies) wearing short dresses and showing off their stocking tops or rolling down there stockings that was only a small part of the story

Another fashion trend started by the flappers was to decorate their stocking by painting small motives on the leg, some would go as far as having their boyfriends face pointed on both knee like this lady has.


This practice of painting stocking would re-emerge again in future decades other designs were also popular like clock painted on the side of the stockings.
As this American advert for rayon stocking shows, there are several very interesting points
These are another style of painted stocking an art form which was very populate in the 20's I would say it was done mainly on silk stocking.
The Edwardian style of corsets were still worn by the older generations in the early part of the 20's the stockings been clipped to the bottom these would as the decade progressed evolve into a girdle like garment for the younger ladies they would still wear the girdle in daytime but occasionally especially for evening wear these would discarded rolling down there stockings wearing a garter, first a roll on garter or sometime a very decorative one.

Whist the most common way that a 20's ladies would hold up there stocking by attaching then to the bottom of the girdle
Another solution was these of a garter the one shown in this photo is more decorative than functional they often had decorative stones in layer and like this one matched the gold kid shoes these decorative garter was more for decoration than practical use.
Roll on garter often worn to cover up the roll on garter which was functional but in a way boring to see decorative garter are still made and worn today they do not serve any practical purpose they are worn mainly by brides at their wedding for tradition and romantic reasons.


These are a pair of seamed silk stocking dating from around the 1920's made by I.R Morley they have cotton soles and welt with a seam up the back.
I would say they are thee equivalent thickness of today's 60 denier hosiery. they were no way as long as modern stocking or today with the welt coming just above the knee as skirt lengths back in the 20's were below the knee in many instances and as silk was still relatively expensive there was not the need to have the extra expense in knitting a legs that was longer than it needed to be.

By the 1930's an average lady would now own three pairs of sheer stocking compared this to the start of the century when a lady would have just one pair this was because the price had dropped so dramatically by the 30's for hosiery.
Most likely these would be a combination of silk, rayon and cotton whilst no new fibres were developed in this decade for hosiery what you will find that is there was an improvement in the manufacture of hosiery combined this with the falling price in silk more finer and more elegant stocking were produced.
These are a pair of very early 1930 silk stocking or even late 20's, the natural or tan shade which was seen as risky in the twenties had become acceptable by the 1930's, these are still opaque in thickness and still relatively short in length, they have a reinforced heel and foot.
Another pair of silk stocking slightly later in date than the ones above the main difference with these is that they are a lot sheerer than the previous ones, still not as sheer and "nylons" they would have been at the top of the price range and keep for special occasions. "often know as fine gauge"
These are the earliest rayon stocking I presently own originating from the 1930's seamed rayon stockings one in black the other in a flesh or blush tone.

 
They can be described as silky smooth, to the untrained eye they look like silk hence the name artificial silk which was a namely mainly used in the 20's not commonly used today, they are semi sheer and typical of rayon have a shine to them. They are fully fashioned with a reinforced foot toe and heel and along with a Cuban heel.

The new all in one

Up until the 1930's in general terms a set of ladies foundation wear would consist of three items, a bra, corset and knickers with a slip or chemise over the top ,in the1930's this would start to change with the introduction “All in ones". 

This was sometimes called the "corselets" which in theory combined these three together most ladies would still prefer to also wear a pair of knickers over the top of this garment. The stockings were attached with small clips made of metal at the end of a length of elastic often adjustable at the bottom of the all in one girdle going to the stocking welt.

The actual suspender part of these all in one were shorter the in the 1920's so the stocking were now a little longer in length so that they could reach these clips.