Stockings are articles of clothing that fit snugly over the feet and part or all of the legs. Two forms of stockings, pantyhose and tights, cover the feet and legs and reach to the waist. People wear stockings chiefly for comfort, warmth, and decoration and to protect their shoes from perspiration and foot odor.
How stockings are made.
Most pantyhose and women’s stockings are sheer (transparent). Most tights, men’s hose, and children’s stockings and some women’s stockings are opaque (nontransparent). Nearly all sheer stockings are made of some kind of nylon yarn. Almost all opaque stockings are made from cotton, wool, or manufactured fibers, such as nylon, olefin, and acrylic and polyester fibers. Support and surgical hosiery contain some spandex or rubber for stretch and elasticity.
Stockings are made from knitted fabric, using one of two basic methods. Most seamless stockings are made on a circular machine that knits each stocking into a tubelike shape. The toe is then closed by hand or machine. Stockings with a seam, called full-fashioned hose, are made on a flat-bed machine. This machine knits a flat piece of fabric, varying the stitches to shape the leg and foot. Another machine sews the edges together to form a seam.
History.
As early as the 400’s B.C., people in ancient Greece and some other lands occasionally wore socklike foot coverings for warmth. The stockings were made of fabric and worn inside shoes. During the A.D. 400’s, clergymen in western Europe began to wear long, tight stockings as a symbol of purity. By the 1000’s, noblemen had also adopted this style of stocking.
Although a group of ancient Egyptians called Copts knew how to knit hosiery, stockings were made of woven cloth until the 1500’s, when rich people began to wear hosiery produced by professional hand-knitters. In 1589, William Lee, an English minister, invented a machine that could knit stockings. By the late 1600’s, many people wore machine-knitted hose. Most stockings were made of cotton, silk, or wool until nylon was introduced in 1939.
