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Clothes & shoes of yesteryear

Di.Poppitt

Di.Poppitt

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
In the early 50's when I started work stcokings were expensive. A pair of Wolsey fully fashioned with seams cost 10/-. I earned £2.10 a week, and so I bought a pair at the beginning of the month when I was paid, and they had to last. Skirts were calf length so a ladder at the top was stopped from running down with a blob of nail varnish.

One memorable day I was running full pelt and went a pearler, one knee hit the floor first and my stocking had a huge hole. I had a bad cut with gravel in it and had to go the ambulance room at work, where the nurse bandaged me up. I went out that night with a few tacking stitches anchoring the stocking to the bandage. :roll:
 
Hi Diana

Stockings. I had a pair of them 8) They were Rose Pink colour & went very well with my Lumberjack outfit but they made my voice go from deep bass to alto soprano so I could only wear them at parties, shame Eh!!

ps Thanks for the tip on Nail varnish to stop the lads running :oops:

Luv from John :wink:
 
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Hi Di,
The trouble started when mini skirts came in and more, much more, of the stocking showed. :oops: Wasn't it hell trying to keep the seams straight? I worked as a typist at Lucas in Formans Road and a girl there had access to someone who could provide stocking [American Tan] at a good price. Nevertheless we used to dab on a little correcting fluid and that worked to stop ladders.
Strutting down the Stratford Road wearing winkle pickers, American Tan stockings and of course a clutch handbag and gloves. Do you remember duster coats?
 
Hi Grace

Oh those duster coats. I had one in red, I must have looked like a dogs dinner. :roll: ( don't tell Paul)

What about the long umbrella, with a long steel point. All part of the get-up. :D
 
Not stockings

During WW2, when you couldn't get stockings, my mum and her former office colleague Flip (who stayed with us while a bombed-out family from Antrobus Road, Handsworth lived in her place, and her husband was in the Navy) used to smear damp building sand on their legs. They didn't do it for long because it irritated their skin so much.
When my dad came home on leave, I seem to remember he gave the treatment to both ladies, but this is getting off-topic.
Peter
 
:D My sister and I were never allowed nail varnish, in most cases it was mom who laid down rules like that but in this case it was Dad . He hated the look of it and the smell and would not eat anything if he knew that it had been prepared by anyone who wore it.
So to save our stockings we used soap, glue, or paste (no boys not tooth or fish paste) :lol:

Chris :)
 
In the days before everything had to be politically correct my husband ( now ex)was a bus conductor and the most excitement he and his mates got was when a young lady went upstairs and flashed a bit of stocking top.
Tights put a stop to that.
 
Lucky escape

Phew Di, a lucky escape. Do you realise dear Paul or Young John didn't notice that I said I strutted down the Stratford Road wearing stocking, winkle pickers, handbag and gloves, apparently nothing else :oops: They must be asleep.
 
Not so Dusty eh?

Hiyah Grace :)

Being a Gentleman one does presume that one was wearing the Red Duster coat borrowed from ones friend Diana after the dogs dinner had been wiped off it, Then strutted your stuff down the road in decorum.

:roll: Wherever that is :?:

ps Did you ladies have Red Hats to match? mmmh methinks :oops:

Ooooh that Umbrella don,t half hurt, Ouch (sorry Gals) aha John :shock:
 
Wearing stockings also meant wearing a suspender belt and the strappy things had a pieceof metal on them. Our mirror was over the fireplace (I know it was hazardous put it was my parents' choice), and when I had been standing there for a while doing my make-up and hair, that bit of metal would get red hot - oh the pain. All the men of my generation liked to catch a glimpse of the flesh between the top of the stockings and our undies, my man still talks nostalgically about that even now.
 
sylviasayers said:
... All the men of my generation liked to catch a glimpse of the flesh between the top of the stockings and our undies, my man still talks nostalgically about that even now.
Click to expand...

Sylvia! :oops: You will note I am refraining from commenting on this thread any further. What with Sylvia and Grace, if only my mother was here to see the type of wimmin I'm associating with now! 8)
 
Oh, About those wartime day's I remember when the ladies used gravy browning to cover their legs,and then used a pencil for the seams,
and Ah, memories of stocking tops & suspender belts, now those WERE the days :wink: :wink: :twisted:
 
Lower foundation garments - the Rollon

Perhaps I was a late developer or younger than Dennis - apart from my mum's washing on the line, the only thing I have any personal memories of is the ROLLON girdle. It made mincemeat of a girl's natural shape, and I welcomed those rare summer days when she would be bold enough to leave it and the stockings out. That was when girls were girls. (I hope I'm not quite off-topic). It must have been very uncomfortable to wear, and having to put it on and take it off was another of women's burdens. My attempts to help are certainly off-topic, but it's 50 years ago now.
Peter
 
I had a feeling right from the start that this thread would degenerate into something unsavoury, that's why I've kept out of it... well that and the fear of revealing my passion for wimmin in stockings. :P 8)
 
:D Paul :!: I have an :idea: that you and I have been down this road before when Dot, Kandor and Frantic made contributions to the topic, so your views on this topic of stockings and suspenders are not new to me :wink: :lol: :lol: .
Funny really new contributors but the same memories and the topic has gone in exactly the same direction as its predecessor which was probably removed to make space for new content. :)

Chris :)
 
So I've confessed before? :roll: I must be on the slippery slope as I can't remember. :?
 
:D Don't worry Paul :? I only remember 'cause I copy all my posts that contain memories of my life in England. So that one day they can all be put in order to make some kind of sense for the Grandchildren to read if they wish. :)

Chris :)
 
Stockings...(swoon)

I love Stockings, absolutely love 'em, but I'm a tights man myself.
I wore some once on a building site in the middle of Winter '81
Never EVER again..itched all morning and worried all the time I had them on that if I had an accident, I'd be rushed off to hospital and not be awake to explain why I was wearing them.
Of course, weekends are different. 8)
 
:D Hi ya Kandy M8, nice to see you to see you nice. :) :)

Hi girls talking about tights (well Kandy was anyway).
Did any of you do what my sister and I used to do and buy them in the same shade, then if you got a hole in one leg of a pair save them till you got a hole in another pair. Then cut the holey legs off and chuck them away, then wear both pairs with the good legs together on cold days. :) :)
 
Yep Chris, I've done that. Also used to put tights in the freezer, it gives them a bit of extra insurance against ladderimg.

( And no guys, before you ask, I didn't wear them frozen ) :roll:
 
3 legged tights

Hi Folks

Think I recall a Designer fellow who invented 3 legged tights for that same reason that Christine just explained, Hole one but have the spare.

Not sure where he came from :?: May have been The Isle of Man or possibly the brother of Rolfe Harris down under, Jake the Peg :wink:

There you see, I can be sensible :lol: Ok John
 
Ganzi? gansi? gansie? ganzie? gansy? ganzy... dunno what the spelling is, can anyone enlighten me?

It was a woollen knitted garment, I believe, distributed to the poor by a police charity in Digbeth. As a rule of thumb, I think if you qualified for the Mail Boots, you qualified for a gansie.

Amongst family members there is some dispute as to whether it was a sleeveless pullover (tank top), or sorta sleeveless cardigan (button up), long-sleeved sweater or could be any of the three.

EDIT (some time later):

Mr Google just found this for me:
gansie Noun. A pullover, jumper, woollen sweater, cardigan. A corruption of Guernsey. Also spelt gansy.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, it says nothing about the Brummie connection. :(
 
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