Nothing but Seamed Stockings

[kamikat]

? about stockings

I don't usually wear stocking or pantyhose with modern dresses, just opaque tights. I was amazed at the range of colors in stockings. What color best duplicates the most common color of WWII era stockings? Thanks!

 

[ITG]

Panty hose/Stockings with the Line up the back?

Where can I get these type of hose? I'm sure actual vintage ones are hard to come by. Anyone know where I can find new ones online?

 

[BellyTank]

Hi-
not that I wear them but try-

Magnolia Hoisery

this is what they sell- old style hosiery-
back seam, re-inforced toe and heel-
they real mccoy.
I got some for my wife from this place.

BellyTank.

 

[The Wolf]

I have an ad on the back of the late, lamented Atomic magazine for secretsinlace.com. They sell vintage-style seamed stockings. I just checked the site and it is still operating. I hope this helps.

 

[Dollface]

hiya! I have a few pairs of those stockings and i bought mine at DANCESTORE.COM

They are fairly inexpensive....

 

[GingerDoll]

I love the look of backseams, but can't stand the elephant-ankles that actual vintage stockings (which lack stretchiness) give me. I buy my modern back seam stockings online from Glamour Boutique. They specialize in products for transgender ladies, but they have excellent customer service and they carry modern stretch stockings in nude with a very nice sewn backseam at $4.95 a pair!

Oh, and one more thing.... avoid the stay-up, no garterbelt needed thigh-high stockings at all costs! This engineering nightmare inevitably results in an thigh bulge that no slip can fully conceal. Real stockings that fit well with a garterbelt properly positioned won't ever have this nasty effect.

Hope this helps!
Zoe

 

[GingerDoll]

Whoops! I forgot to include the URL:

http://www.glamourboutique.com/

 

[The Bingstress]

Hmmm, that's a good question, Kamikat. I could be wrong, but my guess would be a light nude--something pretty close to (caucasian) skin color with perhaps the slightest hint of tan.

I say this because tanning was not a fad in the 40s, and thus they probably wouldn't have made their stockings that fake looking tan color that modern hose manufacturers use. Likewise, I don't think they would go as light as off-white, because that's less sexy (and they were all about sexy back then).

I would actually suggest renting a few color movies from the '50s and '60s and seeing what the gals wore then. Stocking technology didn't really start changing until the 1980s with the invention of lycra spandex, and so stockings were pretty much made the same for several decades throughout the mid-20th century (either silk or nylon). I remember a scene in "Rosemary's Baby" when Mia Farrow is unhooking her stockings from her garter and rolling them down her legs. Those were the old fashioned kind, and that's probably close to the colors they used.

Hope that helps (and hope I'm not too far off the mark)!

Hugs & blessings,
The Bingstress

 

[TheKatzMeow]

I always buy the sable (fourth one down) from http://mybabyjo.com/under.htm

$9 each but they last and last!

 

[Lauren]

Sometimes Fredericks of Hollywood has them, but they are usually with cuban heel seams, which are tan with black seams and heel.


Here's the link

And the vintage stores that cater to the rockabilly type customers often have them. If you know any, you may want to give them a call.

 

[ITG]

Sometimes Fredericks of Hollywood has them, but they are usually with cuban heel seams, which are tan with black seams and heel.

Yeah, I went in there, but they didn't have what I was looking for. I ended up getting some at Victoria's Secret yesterday (control top to boot)...less than $10 a pair. 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.

And the vintage stores that cater to the rockabilly type customers often have them. If you know any, you may want to give them a call.

Yeah, I wish we had some of those stores around my parts (or if there are some of these stores in Dallas, they have been unfound by me).

 

[Lauren]

I'm not sure how I feel about the cuba heels as it seems like it'd come up out of the shoe and look odd.

agreed. I prefer the all tan ones.

Here's a link I just found for vintage/retro shops in Dallas. Maybe you'll hit it off! Good vintage or rockabilly stores are just so hard to come by, and i'm not a fan of original vintage stockings, myself.
dallas/ft worth vintage shops

 

[ITG]

Thanks Lauren! Yeah, that first shop is in scaryland...maybe I'd find something there but then my car might get stolen while shopping...hahaaa! I may have to do some day trips and plot them out one of these days and take a gander at what all they have. See ya at the summit this weekend.

 

[Lauren]

yes, I look forward to it

 

[Scarlet Belle]

Seamed stockings

There is a great English website that sells gorgeous vintage repro lingerie, foundation garments and hosery. They have a good range of seamed stockings and pantyhose. Check them out on www.whatkatydid.com

 

[Scarlet Belle]

Hi Kamikat

Yes, I believe the colour de jour was a light fawn colour, with a brown seam. Dont forget you can always "draw them on" as my mother loves telling me, she used to do!! Can you imagine her glee when I got her to draw lines up the back of my legs, it sent her way back reminiscing. This is great for comfort sometimes, and I think its really cute.

 

[ITG]

Scarlett, forgive me if this question sounds silly. What did your mom find to be the best thing for drawing the lines...a black pen, a black marker, etc?

 

[Lauren]

I am not 100% positive on this one, but I know that suntanning actually became fashionable in the late 30's, and contunued, to a small degree, until the 60's when it went crazy with all the reflectors people would hold up to shine on their faces and so forth (I actually have a photo of my mom using one!). It was started, I believe, by the french, but if you look in some fashion magazines of the late 30's to early 40's at "resort wear" you can sometimes see the women's skin was tinted a darker color in the illustrations. When I first saw it I thought "how progressive to show women of other nationalities in a women's fashion magazine!" Then it was explained to me that that was "all the rage" to have a suntan. And think, just 30 years earlier, some women were taking doses of arsenic just to give them the "lily white" complections the victorians and edwardians were after!

I know they used "suntan cremes" on their legs, with the notorious line drawn up the back during the war, but I believe a slight tan in the hose was known as well. In most vintage stockings I have seen the color ranges from a light tan to a medium tan (like the one your driving arm gets in the winter )
If I run across any tanning fashion illustrations, I'll post them!

Lauren

 

[Scarlet Belle]

Hi ITG

Not a silly question, at all! Mum reckons she use to be able to buy a "liquid stocking" product which was basically just a paint on tan colour, then the gals would use an eyebrow pencil to draw the line - either in black or brown...then off they'd go to jitterbug the night away.

 

[ITG]

Scarlett, do you have a direct link to the pantyhose they sell? I'm not finding it. There are 2 links: Photos and Stuff...I'm not seeing anything to do with lingerie/panty hose. Thanks!