Annette Gould, age 11, of Dubuque, Iowa, for her question:
WHEN WERE STOCKINGS FIRST USED?
Stockings fit snugly over the feet and part or all of the legs. They are worn by people chiefly for comfort, warmth and decoration, and to protect their shoes from perspiration and foot odor. Stockings were used by people in ancient Greece as early as about 400 B.C.
Ancient people wore socks for warmth. The first ones were made of a number of different kinds of fabric.
During the 400s (A.D.), clergymen in western Europe started to wear long, light stockings as symbols of purity. By the 11th Century, noblemen had also adopted this style of stocking.
Most of the early stockings were woven from cloth. In the 1500s, wealthier people started to wear hosiery produced by professional hand knitters.
In 1589, William Lee, an English minister, invented a machine that knitted full fashion stockings. By the late 1600s, many people wore machine knitted hose.
Manufacturers made most stockings of cotton, silk or wool until the development of nylon in 1938.
Today both pantyhose and tights cover the feet and legs and reach the waist. Most pantyhose and women's stockings are sheer, or transparent. Most tights, men's hose and children's stockings and some women's stockings are opaque.
Nearly all sheer stockings are made of some kind of nylon yarn today. Manufacturers make almost all opaque stockings from cotton, wool or human made fibers such as nylon, olefin, acrylic and polyester.
Special stockings, such as support and surgical hosiery, are made of rubber, spandex and other highly elastic materials.
Stocking companies today use two basic methods to make hosiery. Most seamless stockings are made on a circular machine that knits each stocking into a tube like shape. The toe is then closed by hand or machine. Stockings with seams are called full fashion hose.
Full fashion 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 then sews the edges of the material together to form seams down the legs and across the feet.
During the Middle Ages, many of the people wore various kinds of tight leg coverings. Often they would wrap their legs in long pieces of cloth.
By the 1500s men wore short, puffed breeches called upper stocks. These garments were sewn to tight stockings called netherstocks.
From 1890 to 1920, improved manufacturing methods brought rapid growth to U.S. companies that made ready to wear stockings and other clothing. Both men and women started to wear mostly clothing that was mass produced in factories, while prior to this they wore clothing items mostly made at home.