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.