Latest Style Blog: Pantyhose
Allen Gant Sr., owner of textile company Glen Raven Mills, once asked his wife “How about we made a pair of panties and fastened the stockings to it”? The wife stitched some crude garments together, tried them on, and handed them over to her husband. Allen, then with the help of his colleagues Arthur Rogers, J.O. Austin, and Irvin Combs, developed what they called the “Panti-Legs”. Their product, the world’s first pantyhose, began being sold in department stores in 1959. But not so surprisingly the pantyhose didn’t start to sell off the rack immediately. Though the idea was novel and the product convenient, it actually started selling once women started wearing the miniskirt, that is, in the mid-1960s. Called by various names in different states, for example, “sheer tights” in England, or “tights” or “leggings” in America, the pantyhose proved to be one versatile garment.