What would our life be without Nylon? And above all, what would your ladies underwear look like? The invention of the firm Du Pont de Nemours turned the world of lingerie upside down.
Nylon was invented in 1938 by the American Wallace Carothers in the laboratories of Du Pont de Nemours in the United States. It is a super polyamide, obtained by means of reactions on tar by-products. It forms very strong elastic threads, resistant to atmospheric agents and rot-proof. It is used pure or mixed with other fibers and in natural yarns or not. The main user of Nylon is the textile industry and in particular corsetry . Incredibly cheap and strong, Nylon quickly became the ideal fiber for making stockings, tights, bras or briefs. Too bad for silk, so much more alive... Recent advances in chemistry in a material like Nylon have, however, made it possible to
The appearance of the word Nylon sowed confusion in many minds. Each one went there of his etymological interpretation, often passably confused... Here are some of them. It is up to the reader to disentangle fantasy and reality.
Nylon is a contraction of the initials of New York and the first consonant of London.
Nylon is the reverse spelling of Nolyn which in Japanese sounds like norin, a word meaning agriculture and forest. The choice of the word Nylon would be a deliberate attack by the Du Pont company against the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture responsible for silk production in Japan. Remember that nylon stockings compete directly with silk stockings...
Nylon means "Now You Lousy Old Nipponese" in other words "now, you bunch of old Japanese, you're going to see what America is capable of..." implied: to manufacture synthetic silk stockings to crush Japanese industry natural silk.
Nylon was selected from 350 other submissions sent to the Du Pont company after the firm invited Americans to come up with a name for a new chemical. "I adopted the word Nylon because it is clear, easy to pronounce and easy to memorize. Be sure that this word contains no malicious undertones", specified the president of the Du Pont company.
At the start, the bottom as we know it did not exist. We then wore a kind of fabric underpants that wrapped around the foot. The bottom itself made its appearance in 1954 when an Englishman, William Rider, had the idea of making boxer shorts by separating the top from the bottom, and knitting. The stockings were generally made of silk and were of great luxury. It was Henri II, in France, who wore the first for the wedding of his sister Marguerite in 1569.
Mechanically knitted stockings arrived with the invention of the stocking knitting loom around 1589. The invention of this loom is still due to an Englishman, William Lee, but nothing is less certain. This loom arrived in France in 1600. The first looms only provided plain stockings, but very quickly patterned, mottled, ribbed or floral stockings were made.
From 1685 woolen stockings were replaced by cotton thread stockings called "Barbary stockings", white or mottled. During the Revolution, the color changed and only black stockings were worn.
We must reach the 1930s, when the first nylon stockings were put on sale in the United States. They were so successful that nylon became synonymous with stockings and 64 million pairs were sold nationwide in one year. The Second World War put a temporary end to the production of nylon stockings. It reappeared at the end of the war and again was a resounding success, causing incredible queues in front of the stores.
Around 1950, seamless stockings appeared, available in several colors and several finishes. As nylon becomes less expensive, stockings become more accessible. The 60s will see its decline. The arrival of the mini-skirt will make her prefer wearing pantyhose.
Text from the forum Rechercher enviedailleurs.forumpro.fr