Vintage stockings #0052

The collector: Alain, Paris, France.

The collection: Vintage stockings (fully fashioned nylons or reinforced heel and toe), if possible brand new in their original packages or boxes.

The story behind the collection...

I have been collecting vintage nylons since 1999 and began to collect them after I bought a few in auctions on ebay USA as gifts for a few US fetish model friends I know. When I saw how nice, fragile and rare they were I began to try to buy more and stock some. After a while I noticed that in addition to the stockings I was also interested by the boxes which were also all different with great design.

I'm not sure exactly how many I have, but last time I sorted them it was above 700 boxes plus some packages. It's difficult to select favourites but some are really nice and hard to find. I have a particular love for brands such as Willy's of Hollywood and Picturesque who made special fully fashioned nylons with decorated ankles or rhinestone applique on the ankles.

I'm particularly interested in vintage nylons from the 40s and 50s because that was the golden age for seamed stockings. Now there are only four companies in the world who continue to make old style fully fashioned nylons. Two are in the UK, one is in France and one is in the USA.

I also have a nice collection of paper ads for stockings, but it's way less interesting and fancy than the stockings themselves.

Alain's collection is on Flickr: sssh960 Nylons collector.

All images © Alain and used with his kind permission.