October 12, 2012
Stocking Series, Part 4: The Rebellious Roll Garters
Bold women in their bathing suits and rolled stockings. Note the uniformed officials in the background who don’t look pleased. Date unknown.
It’s time to bring back rolled stockings. This isn’t attributable to scientific research or trend-spotting. It’s that in compiling Threaded’s Stocking Series (read Parts 1, 2, and 3), this was one trend I could imagine incorporating into what I wear today (as opposed to, say, paint-on stockings). Grimace if you like, but I’m imagining navy stockings rolled just below the knee, clog sandals, a knee-length, high-waisted pinstriped skirt and a vintage 1980s paisley blouse (with the shoulder pads intact, of course).
The rolled stocking, complete with roll garter, had its heyday in the 1920s and ’30s. It was sandwiched between a period when women wore corsets with garters used to hold up stockings and a time when women’s undergarments included less bulky, but still cumbersome garter belts, also with attached garters.
Packages of roll garters (for sale now on Etsy).
Roll garters and their packaging.
This wasn’t some passing fad like winter of ’71 hot pants craze. In fact, a Paramount silent film from 1927 starring Louise Brooks was even named after the phenomenon: Rolled Stockings!
Movie poster for Paramount’s Rolled Stockings.
Keep in mind that during the peak season of garter rolls, stockings weren’t what they are today. Made from silk, they didn’t stretch (as nylon hose weren’t introduced until 1939), they came as a pair, and they needed to be held up on your leg – somehow.
Women show off their rolled stockings, 1920s.
So roll garters provided a real utility, safeguarding women from clothing malfunctions like finding your stockings gathered at your ankles. But rolling your stockings over a garter was also about making a fashion statement (the equivalent of ’80s legwarmers?). In the 1920s – as corsets were worn less frequently, dresses became looser, hemlines rose, and flappers rebelled against preconceived notions of female etiquette – many women embraced the new roll garter, forgoing subtlety and increasing the chances that the roll – and a little leg! – might be seen. (Heard the one about the schoolteacher who was fired for a stocking roll dress code violation?). To draw attention to this risqué business, stockings were often rolled beneath the knee and padded garters were patented to increase the girth of the roll.
Flapper garb in Moscow, Idaho, in 1922. Donated by Dave Bumgardne.
Something about the slouchy, more relaxed look of these rolled stockings is reflected in the women’s faces in the photos I found during my research. Dress silhouettes had been pretty rigid until that time, enforced by restrictive undergarments. From their satisfied expressions, and without any concrete evidence to back me up, wearing rolled stocking back then must’ve been akin to the liberating, punk rock feeling of, I don’t know, wearing ripped fishnets today?
Elsie Chocola poses in a bathing suit and rolled down stockings. Date unknown.
That being said, I haven’t attempted the rollover garter technique (turns out they still sell them !) so I could be dead wrong. Maybe it’d feel as restrictive as wearing 100 elastic bands around my calf. Hopefully, the women in these photos aren’t just grinning and bearing it.
Any Threaded readers out there who’ve rolled their hose and want to share their own memories?
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I hadn’t heard of rolled garters before, but I regularly use a similar method to keep up my knee socks (I don’t wear nylons much less silk stockings). The elastic I use is flat, not rolled, but I find it terribly comfortable.
Yes, I can imagine what you mean…
Wow, that first photo is priceless! I just love the expressions on everyone’s faces.
I’d try this but I don’t even own any stockings to roll!
Thanks, Keri! I still need to give it a try myself…
My grandmother, who was born in 1900, wore her stockings rolled with elastic bands until she stopped wearing them in her late 90s. Yes, even under trousers she wore the stockings fastened right under the knee with a rubber band – the flat kind that measures about .25 inch wide…..
Love this! Thanks for sharing, Deb.
The first picture has a few stories in it. Like the woman on the left, looking down at the guy grabbing her foot, for one.
How high is that wall they are doing the ‘Charleston’ upon?
Interesting blog, (Threaded), I enjoy reading it.
Thanks, Phil! I agree – there’s a lot going on in that image.
I find this a bit funny, since if you wear thigh high socks or service weight thigh high stockings, they’ll naturally form a rolled garter if you don’t use conventional ones. No elastic band needed. I don’t know about finer gauges since I mostly wear ‘em for warmth. Usually you can fiddle with ‘em to get a cuff that will stay up too.
They do look better if you wear proper garters tho.
What a wonderful collection of photographs. It’s interesting to see how a simple fashion choice led to a liberating change for women of the 20′s.
Steve @ ArtGallery.co.uk
Thanks, Steve!
Those horribe things are like the ones we used in the Army to keep our pants properly bloused in our boots. Miserably uncomfortable and created ridges in your legs after awhile. That’s probably why rolled stockings didn’t last that long. My grandmother was a flapper and she still wore her stockings like that when I was a girl in the 60′s and 70′s. She wore a regular full length corset, but didn’t use it to hold up her hose–just to give her a better line under her dresses since she still wore nylon house dresses. She did that until she died in the early 80′s.
As a former home economics teacher I often would tell the story of “hose” in my classes. It was such a great way to teach a bit of history via textiles in an interesting way, and students loved the stories! I have a few samples of “the way we were” and students were fascinated by them. From time to time I still teach a textiles section for intro to sewing students, and they still find it interesting… some students have never had a stocking on their legs today, winter tights is a close as they come to the “feeling”. Thanks for this great series, I will use the info in future presentations, if that is ok with you!
In the 18th century and earlier, the most common type of garters were a flat-woven tape tied around the leg. While some illustrations show it tied above the knee, most reenactors find that they work best tied below the knee. One trick we use, when we forget our garters, is to roll down the stocking to just below the knee. Unlike their historic counterparts, the most common repro stockings have some crimped nylon content. The crimped nylon gives enough elasticity to act like a roll garter.
There is a balance between having garters tight enough to hold up stockings, and having them too tight for comfort.
The rolled stocking is basically worn by women in 19′s. They can be rolled according to comfort and contains lot of patterns. It is still used by old women and some other royal authorities.
My granny wore the roll garters until she died in 1983 at the age of 81. She was a little more circumspect than the pictured ladies – at least while I knew her in the 60s – 80s. Her rolled section was generally just above her knee. I’m sure she did the roll beneath the knees in her hayday!