About Pantie Hose
Pantie hose are sheer, close fitting coverings of the
body from the waist to the feet, most frequently worn by women. Like
stockings they are usually made of nylon. The one-piece pantie hose
garment appeared in the 1960s and provided a convenient alternative
to stockings (nylons).
The term 'pantie hose' originated in the United States,
referring to the combination of 'panties' (an American term for women's
underpants) with sheer nylon hosiery. In the United Kingdom, they are
called tights, a term that refers to all such garments regardless of
whether they are sheer lingerie or sturdy outerwear. In the U.S., the
term tights is used for non-sheer garments typically made of a stretchy
material like spandex, and worn during exercise or athletic activity,
or as utility clothing.
History
In the 1920's the fashionable hemline for women's skirts
and dresses began to rise enough to show a woman's legs and sheer hosiery
that covered the legs was only available as stockings. They were typically
made of silk or artificial silk (now known as rayon), and after 1939
with nylon.
In 1959, Allen Gant Sr. of Glen Raven Mills introduced
pantie hose. Stocking manufacturers began using circular knitting machines
to reduce manual labor and create seam-free stockings. In 1965, Glen
Raven Mills introduced a seam-free version of pantie hose, which coincided
with the introduction of the miniskirt. The miniskirt made it unfashionable
to show the tops of a woman's stockings, and by the end of the decade
pantie hose had replaced stockings almost entirely. This also contributed
to a marked shift in foundation undergarment sales: younger women stopped
buying girdles around this time. In the same period hosiery started
adding spandex or elastane to give it stretch superior to crimping nylon.
Glen Raven Mills still operates in North Carolina, U.S. as Glen Raven
Inc.
Pantie hose styles
Pantie hose are available in a wide range of popular styles.
The sheerness of the garment, expressed as a numerical 'denier'/'dtex',
ranges from 3 (extremely rare, very thin, barely visible) to 15 (standard
sheer) up to 30 (semi opaque) until 70 (opaque).
For people who want a slimmer form, they may opt to get
"Control Top", which has a reinforced panty. The downside
to Control Top pantie hose are the panty lines that may appear when
wearing high cut skirts or shorts. Sheer to Waist is just that - sheer
from the toe to the waist - no panty lines. Perfect for high slit gowns,
mini-skirts and when wearing with lingerie.
The composition of pantie hose
Most pantie hose are composed of nylon and a mixture of
spandex, which provides the elasticity and form fitting that is characteristic
of modern pantie hose. Unfortunately, the nylon fabric is somewhat prone
to tearing and it is common for very sheer hose to 'run' soon after
snagging on something rough or sharp.
Pantie hose worn for fashion have a standard construction.
The top of the waist is a strong elastic. The part covering the hips
(panty area) is composed of a thicker material than the legs. The gusset
or crotch is also a stronger material, sometimes made of cotton. The
legs of the pantie hose are made of the thinnest material which has
a consistent construction down to the toes, which may be reinforced
to guard against wear.
Advantages of pantie hose
On mildly or moderately cold days, pantie hose help keep
the legs warm for those wearing skirts or dresses. Above all pantie
hose hides blemishes or scars on the legs, leg hair stubble, and varicose
veins. On cold dry days, pantie hose can help prevent the legs from
becoming too dry. Some companies regard wearing skirts without pantie
hose as unprofessional and thus require people who wear skirts to work
to also wear pantie hose or sheer tights.
Dark pantie hose, and black pantie hose in particular,
can create the illusion of slimmer legs. On the flip side, white pantie
hose can cause fat calves and ankles to look even fatter. Another flip
side is dark hose shows runs whilst lighter (skin tones) conceals them
but show water spots flipped up from the heel after walking in the rain.
Whilst as detailed below the material is not absorbent it is quick drying
(for example after walking in the rain/being splashed by traffic).
Disadvantages of pantie hose
The nylon fabric of pantie hose is extremely prone to
runs (called laddering in the United Kingdom). One can even cause a
run in the hose by catching the toenail in the fabric when one puts
the hose on, catching it on a desk, car, and numerous other 'risks'.
Some women use clear nail polish to prevent runs from growing.
Unlike cotton, nylon is not an absorbent material. As
a result, perspiration from the wearer's feet is more likely to remain
in contact with the feet, which may feel unpleasant to the wearer. If
one wears high heels with pantie hose, the increased moisture can cause
the feet to slip forward in the shoe, causing the toes to be scrunched
together. The increased moisture also causes the foot to move around
inside the shoe. This, combined with the fact that pantie hose are thinner
than cotton socks and thus do not provide as much skin protection, can
lead to blisters on the foot, heel, and ankle.
Another consequence of the increased moisture is more
foot odor. Because the odor is generally considered unpleasant, women
who are experiencing pain from blisters and scruched toes are often
reluctant to remove their shoes around others, even though doing so
might lessen the pain..
What are pantie hose?
Pantie hose are a form of sheer women's hosiery that extend
from the waist to the toes. The terms hosiery and stocking derive from
the Anglo-Saxon words hosa, meaning "tight-legged trouser,"
and stoka, meaning "stump" When the upper part of a trouser
leg was cut off, the remaining stoka became "stocking," and
hosa became "hosiery." For centuries, sheer stockings and
hose were worn as separate leg and foot coverings. However, after World
War II, fashion designers began to attach panties to stockings, creating
the form of hosiery currently favored by most women. Although their
most basic purpose is to protect and beautify the feet and legs of female
consumers, nylons are also put to other uses, including supporting the
legs of football players and protecting crops from dust storms. pantie
hose have even been recycled in the arts and crafts industry, where
they are cut up and stuffed with fiberfill to become the arms and legs
of dolls and stuffed animals.
Few early references to women's hosiery exist because
any public mention of women's legs was considered improper until the
twentieth century. The first extant discussion of a garment resembling
today's pantie hose concerns the "tight-fitting hose" young
Venetian men wore beneath short jackets during the fourteenth century.
Made of silk, these leggings were often brightly colored and embroidered;
older Venetians considered them extremely immodest. One of the earliest
mentions of women wearing stockings appears in the records of Queen
Elizabeth I, whose "silk woman" presented her with a pair
of knitted black silk stockings. Admiring their softness and comfort,
the Queen requested more, and wore only silk stockings for the rest
of her life.
In 1589, when the Reverend William Lee attempted to patent
the first knitting machine, Queen Elizabeth denied his request because,
she contended, the coarse stockings produced by Lee's machine were inferior
to the silk hose she had shipped from Spain. Lee improved his machine,
enabling it to manufacture softer stockings, but Elizabeth's successor,
James I, denied his second patent application as well, this time out
of fear that the machine would endanger the livelihood of English hand
knitters. After Lee's death, his brother built a framework knitting
machine that remained unrivalled for several hundred years.
When William Cotton invented the first automated knitting
machine in 1864, he incorporated the key features of Lee's design, notably
the spring-beard needle that is still used in many contemporary knitting
machines. Named for the fine, open hook that projects from the needle
at an angle like that of the hair in a man's beard, the spring-beard
needle must be used with a pressing device to close the hook as it forms
a loop. This type of needle is ideal for hosiery because it produces
smaller loops and, consequently, a finer weave. Cotton's straight-bar
machine created flat sheets of fabric using a weft stitch whereby a
continuous yarn was fed to needles that sewed back-and-forth horizontal
rows. By increasing or reducing the number of needles used to knit different
portions of a stocking, workers could vary the thickness of the garment:
more needles produced thicker fabric. Stitching began at the top of
the stocking with a welt, or thick strip to which women could attach
garters. To accommodate the feet and ankles, the stocking fabric was
thinned at the bottom, although the fabric at the heel remained thick,
for cushioning purposes. After it was removed from Cotton's machine,
the fabric was manually shaped and seamed up the back to produce so-called
full-fashioned stockings.
Also produced during the mid-nineteenth century, the first
seamless stockings were made on circular machines that knitted tubes
of fabric to which separate foot and toe pieces were subsequently attached.
Although these stockings were more attractive in that they featured
no visible seams, they bagged at the knees and ankles because circular
machines could not add or drop stitches like the Lee and Cotton machines.
It was not until the World War II era that two developments made possible
better-fitting stockings. First, circular machines were improved so
that they could knit stockings in one piece. Still more significant
was the DuPont Company's invention of a synthetic fiber called nylon.
After being sewn into a tube, nylon fabric could be heated and formed
into a shape that it would thereafter retain through numerous stretchings
and washings. Hosiery made from this revolutionary fabric was introduced
to the general population in 1940, and its immediate popularity soon
rendered the word "nylons" synonymous with hosiery.
However, the war that had accelerated the development
of nylon also increased the demand for it, so, during the early forties,
the hosiery industry offered socks instead of stockings. The anklet,
a short cotton sock, became the temporary replacement favored by most
women, particularly the young consumers known as "bobby-soxers."
Yet, when the war ended and nylon was once again available for consumer
uses, most women returned to nylon stockings. During the sixties, decreasing
skirt lengths necessitated longer stockings, and fashion designers created
what we now know as pantie hose by attaching panties to hosiery. In addition
to accommodating all hemline fluctuations, pantie hose don't need to be
held up with the garters and garter belts previously used to secure
stockings. Nylons have become a fashion accessory that few women are
willing to do without. This is especially true in the white-collar workforce,
where they are considered an essential part of appropriate office attire.
Raw Materials
Pantie hose are generally made from a nylon-based blend
of synthetic fibers. The nylon most commonly used—Nylon 6,6—is
made from adipic acid, an organic acid, and hexamethylene diamine, an
organic base, which are chemically combined to form a nylon salt. Because
nylon is a plastic material—actually the first thermoplastic fiber
ever used—the salt must undergo polymerization. In this process,
different molecules are combined to form longer molecular chains. These
chains result in a smooth, thick substance that is then cut into small
shapes or pellets, before being spun into yarn. The nylon fiber's size,
strength, weight, elasticity, and luster are determined during its preparation
by controlling the number and type of filaments used. For example, luster
is produced by adding titanium dioxide (TiO2). The resulting fiber is
highly elastic and retains its shape after repeated washings and stretchings.
Its resistance to wrinkles and creases, its durability, and the fact
that it dries quickly make it a desirable fabric for busy women.
Today, filaments of another synthetic fiber, spandex,
are frequently combined with nylon filaments to increase elasticity
and achieve a snugger fit. More recently, other new fibers known as
microfibers or microdeniers have been blended with nylon. A denier is
a unit of measure that indicates the thickness of nylon yarn. The denier
scale ranges from 7 to 80 denier, with smaller numbers indicating finer
yarn and higher numbers denoting heavier yarn that will be used to make
stronger fabrics. When blended with nylon, microdeniers enhance softness,
hold color more evenly, and provide a better fit.
Design
Pantie hose are usually classified as sheer, semisheer,
or service weight, with the weight determined by the denier and the
number of needles used during production. Although stockings do not
differ in shape, fashion designers will vary the color, texture and
pattern of their hosiery. Much as the fashion industry offers different
types of clothing appropriate for specific functions and occasions,
it designs hosiery tailored to particular purposes. For example, heavier
knit and natural colored pantie hose are considered more practical for
daytime and office wear while sheer hosiery is saved for evening affairs
and special occasions. Similarly, darker nylons are generally found
on retail shelves during the winter, while paler shades are displayed
in the spring and summer. In addition, some designers offer hose with
extra elastic sewn in to the midriff to serve as "tummy control";
still others produce nylons with lightweight girdles instead of panties.
Because nylon does not "breathe" well, some manufacturers
offer hosiery with cotton crotch panels, and both toes and heels can
be reinforced to deter runs.
