Monday, May 18, 2009

Shocking! Nylon Stockings Day missed


Somehow I let this momentous holiday slip by without due notice. For those of you who'd like to add it to your calendar, the official date for Nylon Stockings day is May 15. Tuba day also marched right on past and I had a fabulous Bolles oompah girl lined up for the parade, but she'll have to wait for her solo until next year. The topic of nylons, however, is another order of matter and belated is better than never. As any Bolles fan knows, he was a connoisseur of hosiery and I think painted it as well as any pinup artist. In fact he did commercial advertising campaigns for hosiery companies and I've included a really nice gouache comp (never seen anywhere before!) for an ad. Sorry but I have no idea of what company it was for or if it ever saw print. Below I've featured several terrific covers that prominently featured stockings. In compiling these it became evident that the majority of "stockinged" girls were were done for Film Fun and among them, 1937 was a particularly good year for nylons (or maybe these were silk but I don't know how you'd tell the difference). One of these days I'll try and break down all the magazines Bolles worked for into themes. Some are pretty obvious, Tattle Tales had exotic girls from the far reaches of the world, and Bedtime Stories favored infamous femme fatales throughout history. But others, especially magazines that Bolles did long runs for, will be a bit harder to pin down. So it "seams" there will be more to this story.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I got it in time for you see my blog 'sexy legs club' ....i'm in Australia so its dated 14th but it was the 15th here when i wrote it

YES HAPPY NYLON DAY

Great blog would like to follow you

Jack R said...

Thanks and I was interested to read the history behind Nylons day. I had no idea!

VP81955 said...

1937 was a particularly good year for nylons (or maybe these were silk but I don't know how you'd tell the difference). They certainly were silk, because nylon stockings weren't introduced until 1940.

Jack R said...

I went back and took a closer look. In 1937 the girls wore hose in five out of the first seven months of Film Fun, but then not another pair until November, 1941 and not any after that. I wonder why...(or why not).

Jack R said...

By the way, I love Carole and Company!

viagra online said...

I like the one of sexy legs, I'm gonna put it on the calendar, thanks for sharing, nice post.

Unknown said...

This is pretty interesting… I hope you don’t mind if I write about it on my blog and link back to you?
Fashion Hosiery 101

Thank you

stockings australia said...

Not that I won't qualify but I hope there are no stringent requirements to be part of that "sexy legs club". How about having a pair of really elegant leggings?