Nylon Stockings Day

What Is Nylon Stockings Day?

Every May 15th is "Nylon Stockings Day" (ストッキングの日, Sutōkingu no Hi) in Japan. On May 15, 1940, the American chemical company DuPont launched nationwide sales of nylon stockings across the United States — introducing one of the most revolutionary textile products of the 20th century. Until then, the American stocking market had been dominated by stockings made of Japanese silk. Nylon, advertised as being made "from coal, water, and air," "stronger than steel," and "as fine as a spider's web," had been developed by a team led by DuPont chemist Wallace Carothers.

Nylon: The Synthetic Revolution

The 1940 nationwide launch of nylon stockings followed their introduction at the 1939 New York World's Fair and limited local sales in 1939. The product's reception was extraordinary: shoppers rushed to buy them, about four million pairs are said to have sold within a short time, and roughly 64 million pairs were sold in the first year. Nylon stockings looked like silk but were far more durable, and they quickly transformed women's fashion.

The Birth of Nylon

Carothers succeeded in synthesizing nylon in 1935. Because it was produced from coal-derived raw materials in the era before petrochemicals became widespread, DuPont promoted it as being made from "coal, water, and air." Nylon's first commercial use was in toothbrush bristles in 1938, but stockings made it famous. Today nylon is used not only in clothing but also in ropes, fishing nets, and machine parts.

Fun Facts

• Wartime shortages: After the US entered World War II in December 1941, nylon production was redirected to military uses such as parachutes, and nylon stockings nearly disappeared from stores. Some women applied leg makeup and drew a "seam" line down the back of their legs to look as if they were wearing stockings.
• Denier: Denier measures the thickness of a fiber — a yarn 9,000 meters long that weighs 1 gram is 1 denier. The lower the number, the sheerer the stocking. In Japan, around 30 denier is often used as the dividing line between stockings and tights.
• Pantyhose: Pantyhose, which combine stockings and briefs in a single garment, were developed in the United States in the late 1950s and spread worldwide with the miniskirt boom of the 1960s. The abbreviation "pansuto" is a Japanese coinage.
• Nylon in space: Nylon was also among the materials used in the Apollo program's spacesuits.