In the 50's women's dress meant you had to wear intimate pieces of clothing such as nylons. The only way to keep one's nylons up was with a garter belt and sometimes squeezing into a girdle.
In 1959, at the request of his wife, Allen Grant Sr. invented the first pair of pantyhose. Being a proper lady, Ethel Boone Gant would not be seen in public not wearing her hosiery. She was pregnant at the time and traveling on an overnight train. With her expanding belly it was uncomfortable for her to keep her garter belt over her belly for her stockings.
It was first called, "Panti-Legs", when Mr. Gant and a colleague of his developed a pair of panties fastened to a pair of stockings. Commercial sales began in various department stores, but sales they didn't really grab the attention of many women, until the rise of the miniskirt in the mid- 1960's. Also at this time the cost of pantyhose were more affordable with new sewing techniques and fabrics such as spandex.
Later in the 1970's and 80's more women were prominent in the workplace, sales grew. Today you can definitely find customers of pantyhose in conservative work environments, and of course on the fashion runways!
I love the assortment of colors and texture that are now vastly available!
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I started my career in the mid 80's and even in the gross humid heat of Miami we wore pantyhose - I don't know how we did, but we did!!
ReplyDeletePantyhose are so sexy & womanly. If I didn't live/work in sticky Florida, I'd wear them more often.
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