Wednesday, September 5, 2012

History of Nylon Stockings

From Threaded:

Nylon stockings made their debut in my hometown, Wilmington, Delaware, on October 24, 1939. That’s because Wallace Hume Carothers, the chemist who invented the synthetic material in 1935, worked for the DuPont company, which is headquartered there. In fact, the first test sale to DuPont employees’ wives took place at the company’s experimental station, just up the street from my childhood home. Not long before the 4,000 pairs of stockings sold out—in only three hours!—DuPont had had women modeling nylon hosiery at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, touting nylon as a synthetic fabric made of “carbon, water and air.” A prototype of that initial run (get it?) can be found in the Smithsonian’s collection.

4 comments:

Cliff Davis said...

Would you, as a Woman, consider this invention a blessing or a curse? Seems to be the Female equivalent of the necktie.

Melisende said...

Cliff, sometimes I wonder if not a little of both!

Anonymous said...

thanks

Piper Richardson said...

I agree that it can be considered as a female counterpart of men's necktie. I think this is such a blessing considering its significance in women's history.