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This advertisement below is for Sears long stockings with lastex knit-in garters.
The Sears ad copy read, ""Bargains in Lastex Top Stockings" 15c. Three Pairs 44c. For Boys and Girls. What could be more convenient! Stockings that don't need garters, that stay up neatly without them! It's the Lastex garter top that holds them up without binding, and it keeps its strength, its elasticity through countless
washings. These are fine ribbed cotton, soft to the touch, really long
wearing. `Scuff-stop' heel that extends up over the shoe-top where the wear
is greatest, lengthens their life. These are real bargains at this low price."
The Sears, Roebuck and Co., huge merchandising firm centered in Chicago was founded by Richard W. Sears (1863-1914) and A.C. Roebuck (1864-1948).
Sears had begun a career in mail-order business in Minnesota 1886. In Chicago he and Roebuck joined resources and formed a corporation in 1893 as a
mail-order business under title Sears, Roebuck and Company. In 1895 Julius Rosenwald (1862-1932) bought Roebuck's interest in firm and became president on
Sears's retirement 1908. A retail-store system was added 1925. The first foreign store added in Havana, Cuba during 1945 and becane te first expropriated store in 1960. The Sears-Roebuck brought the production of industry to the fartherest corner of rural America, opening the cornucopia of the consumer age to rural America. All the new things that were changing American life danced across their pages. Through it, a huge Chicago warehouse offers to modernize the farms and small towns of the Midwest.
These stockings were offered in the Sears 1939-40 Fall and
Winter catalog (p 351). This means that they would have been bought for going back to school outfits.
This advertisement below is for Sears long stockings with lastex knit-in garters. The stockings themselves appear realtively standard, with he exceoption of the latex top.
The Sears ad copy read, ""Bargains in Lastex Top Stockings" 15c. Three Pairs 44c. For Boys and Girls. What could be more convenient! Stockings that don't need garters, that stay up neatly without them! It's the Lastex garter top that holds them up without binding, and it keeps its strength, its elasticity through countless
washings. These are fine ribbed cotton, soft to the touch, really long
wearing. `Scuff-stop' heel that extends up over the shoe-top where the wear
is greatest, lengthens their life. These are real bargains at this low price. Colors: Camel tan, Dark tan, or French tan. Sizes: 6, 6 1/2, 7, 7 1/2, 8, 8
1/2, 9, 9 1/2, 10. State size, color. Shpg wt., 4 oz; 3 prs, 10 oz.
86 D 2638--Pair 15c. 3 Pairs 44 c."
I believe that these stockings were not very popular. Despite the claim,
the knit-in garters didn't really hold the stockings in place very well,
especially after the Lastex had been washed several times. The style didn't
get repeated in later catalogs very often.
We are not sure what age these stockings are for, but would assume primary school age. Sears provides a size chart, but it does not deal with age, but rather compares the hosiery sizes with shoe sizes. Hee the issue is further complicated with different sizes for little and larger children.
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