A personal leg covering history...

[susandennis]

I was born in 1949 - just setting the stage here. Women wore dresses and skirts. Pants were slacks and not worn that often and only in the most casual of settings. Jeans were for farms workers.

We lived a half mile from the elementary school and walked every day - in Winston-Salem, NC. It sometimes got pretty cold in the winter. We wore mostly cotton dresses with cotton socks. And bare legs - always. There was such a thing as tights but they were only for ballet class.

On the coldest days, my Mom made me wear what we called leggings. They were just elastic waisted pull on corduroy pants. You pulled them on up under your skirt and pulled them off when you got inside. I thought they looked terrible. I usually walked to my friend Linda's house and then she and I walked to school together. There was a cool little nook under her front steps. so, we'd leave out her back door, walk around to the front, shed our leggings, stash them under the steps and go to school. On the way home we'd reverse the process. Legs were cold but we looked sharp.

When we started 7th grade, for very special occasions and church on Sunday we wore stockings.



During middle school years those stockings were held up by a garder belt. (And, yes, they were really uncomfortable. The little buckles that attached the stockings were made of metal so don't sit on anything hot or cold, either.)



At high school, we graduated to girdles - regular or panty girdle.



Not all the stocking holder buckles were plastic yet, either.

Then panty hose were born. I remember my Mom ranting and raving about how ridiculous panty hose were and how they were going to die because no one in their right mind would spend that kind of money some something so stupid.**

When you got a run in your stocking, you just break open another pack and pull out a replacement. When you got a run in your panty hose you were toast. And they were very expensive. For a while, when you got a run in one leg, you would just cut that leg out and wait for your next pair to run and cut out that leg so now you were left with 2 legs and 2 panties - one on top of another.

When I went to college, the world was just about to burst open but hadn't yet. Rules for girls were no pants except on weekends. (Also no beer on campus and no men in dorms.) Four years later, they were just happy our asses were covered and did not care with what. Beer was sold on campus and they gave up tracking where men (or women) were.

After college, I wore pantyhose every day to work. I don't think I started wearing pants to work until the late 90's and even then not often and always with pantyhose under them. It was the mid 90's I spent a couple of years working for myself from home and never again wore heels and panty hose to work.

** It actually wasn't too long after this that Daddy's company (Hanes Underwear) merged with Hanes Hosiery and pantyhose became the family's bread and butter. Our family dinner conversations quickly turned to crotches.

The first panty hose were all nylon. Crotches around the country begin to scream with Vaginitis. Daddy was spending his days trying to figure out how to marry the cotton panties that his side of the company made with the hose that the other side made and the reason was crotch rotting.

I finally quit bringing friends home for dinner. All this talk about vaginas and crotches was just too embarrassing.

But once they got the crotch problem nailed, pantyhose turned into a real cash cow for a long time until BAM, one day it was over the gravy train stopped. Jeans were in and China took up the slack and Daddy retired.

And now I wear leggings... again... and don't stow them under Linda's front steps any more.

Comments

[yesthatjill.livejournal.com]

I love that your dinner conversation was about crotches.

[susandennis]

It was just the worst. Especially Daddy talking about it. Really horrible.

[fj.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine.

[meowmensteen]

But are they made of corduroy?

[susandennis]

Actually, what kicked off this whole thing was my looking at fabrics online yesterday and finding one that was touted for leggings that was fleece on one side with the 'look and feel' of corduroy on the other. I did not buy any :)

[nanila]

That was a fascinating read, thanks for sharing the memories!

I don't often wear classic-style skin-tone pantyhose - maybe once a year, to a wedding. I love wearing leggings in winter with dresses, though.

[susandennis]

If I wore dresses now they would ALWAYS be with leggings. These thing are the greatest thing ever.

[ayebydan]

I found this a fascinating read :)

[susandennis]

Cool! Thanks for telling me.

[touchofgr3y.livejournal.com]

This was such a fun/interesting post to read - the little things I never really think about! :)

[susandennis]

Thanks! The beauty of being old and retired is you got nothing but time to think about random historical shit. It's actually fun.

[touchofgr3y.livejournal.com]

And extra beauty that you're willing to share :)

[susandennis]

Well, that's a lovely thing to say. Thank you!

[gfrancie.livejournal.com]

My Mom who is a few years younger than you, spoke of wearing the stockings and girdles in junior high. It was EXPECTED. And then she went rogue in the last year of junior high (9th grade, so this was about 1967) and REFUSED to wear stockings and girdles. She was considered pretty out there. Her Mother was pretty horrified. She said it was the best freedom in the world. She never looked back. She also recalls only being allowed to wear skirts/dresses. At least until the last year or so of high school. Then it was a case of, "whatever. Just wear clothes. Please."

I did have a job where panty-hose were required, and good god it was expensive, even with the discount. (it was a department store) The hilarious part was that I worked in ladies accessories, so I learned a lot about panty-hose and stockings. I would have had fun talking shop with your Dad. We had a lot of opinions about things.

[susandennis]

You would have been invited to dinner EVERY night!

[fauxklore]

We just wore regular pants under our skirts to walk to school, until either 6th or 7th grade, when magically we were allowed to wear pants.

Personally, I love tights. And I especially love wool tights.

[susandennis]

The things that my Mom called leggings were really just regular pants and we were allowed to wear them, I just hated them under skirts and dresses.

If I have to wear anything like that, tights are the way to go for me these days, too.

[river57.livejournal.com]

I'm a couple of years older than you but I can't believe there's no mention of Bonny Doon knee socks in the '60s. Knee socks and Weejuns....those were the days!

[susandennis]

OMG! Bonny Doons and weejuns!!! Flashback!

But, alas, not for me. Bonny Doons were a Hanes competitor so we were not allowed to have them.

We also couldn't have Weejuns because they were too expensive. We had knockoffs from a local department store called Colleguns. They fooled NO ONE!

fun. Thanks for the remembery!

[rosegardenfae.livejournal.com]

Great story, thanks for the memories of garter belts and hose. Gee, don't think I even own a single pair of panty hose now, but I do love my leggings.

[susandennis]

I finally was able to donate half my closet this year when I realized that in order to wear those dresses and skirts, I'd have to don panty hose. NFW. Dresses and skirts went to Goodwill!

[ani-mama.livejournal.com]

Very cool! Neat that your family was part of that history too.

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

A fascinating read, Susan, even for those of us of the male gender. I remember advocating for my sister to be able to shave her legs. Panty hose over furry legs looked odd to me. Mom would not allow sis to shave her legs until she was 16.

[susandennis]

OMG Neil! Yes!!! My Mom had the same rule and it sucked. And, it's the first time I remember going against her explicit command. I shaved them anyway. As I remember, it did not cause the giant uproar I was expecting. Perhaps that turned out to be more of an unintended lesson :)

Also, the very minute I was able to abandon pantyhose, I also abandoned shaving my legs! It turned out to be a royal PIA plus old age has really cut down on leg hair anyway.

[onelargecat.livejournal.com]

All this talk about vaginas and crotches...LOL!

[luzclarita.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed this entry. That black and white photo looks really uncomfortable. What are the lace insets for? Were they to hide public hair? Didn't one also wear a slip at that time, which presumably under a skirt would already obscure the view enough already?

[susandennis]

Great questions!!

They were EXCEEDINGLY uncomfortable. At least the panty girdle didn't ride up on your stomach. The lace panels were non stretch fabric to hold your stomach in. (The ones I, my friends, sister and Mom wore had zero lace. They were not meant to be seen by anyone and were ugly and plain and still exceedingly uncomfortable.

And absolutely one wore a slip. ALWAYS. Sometimes a half slip but mostly not - mostly a full slip. And they were meant to block light but also, and maybe more importantly, they helped the fabric of your skirt or dress hang better and feel better. Stuff was rarely lined so you had wool skirts snagging on your garder/girdle and rubbing what little skin you had exposed.

Slips fixed all that. They were pretty and pretty handy and good to sleep in, too. I miss slips!

[luzclarita.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the explanation. Somehow I didn't realize there were proto-spanx products.

When I was a girl, I wore slips, but by high school they all disappeared. I remember being in the transition period when they were going away but still owning dresses and skirts that required slips and not knowing what I was supposed to do.

As an adult, I strongly prefer lined skirts, perhaps because as you said, they just feel like they hang better.

Back in a girdle again!

[(Anonymous)]

I'm back in stockings again - hold up nylons, and they're really secure attached to the suspenders of my GIRDLE as well! Yes I'm back in a girdle again for the support and the slimming and it's no way as bad as people paint it.

I much prefer nylon stockings to tights , though I'll wear tights with a panty girdle pulled up over them under slacks or jeans - though I only ever wear the latter for housework and the garden.

And I wear sensible heels, never over three inches.

It's nice to look in the mirror again!

Slimming and support

[(Anonymous)]

A girdle is fine when you get used to it, it's an instant slimmer with great support, I couldn't do without mine today.