The Golden Age
of Nylon Lingerie
1950 – 1975
Carol
The Golden Age
of Nylon Lingerie
1950 – 1975
Carol
When Wallace Carothers of the DuPont organisation in America discovered how to make nylon fibre in 1935, they could hardly have guessed that they had invented the most erotic and feminine fibre ever known to human kind.
By 1940, nylon was replacing silk in stockings and on from there into all kinds of female undergarments. Thus dawned the golden period for nylon-made lingerie, roughly 1950-1975. Many T-Girls will remember at least some of this period, when gorgeous and so sexy nylon nighties and negligees, slips and panties and of course fully fashioned nylon stockings, were the norm on the High Street of every town. Stores like Marks & Spencer, Littlewoods, C&A, British Home Stores and Woolworths, would all have lingerie departments stuffed with gorgeous frilly nylon lingerie – a TV girl’s heaven.
Sadly this started to disappear in the late seventies and the early eighties, as women seemed to embrace boring very un-sexy pyjamas and stuff akin to sports training gear to go to bed in. I feel so sad today for partners,
boyfriends and husbands, who have never had the thrill of finding their lady in bed wearing a frilly nylon babydoll, the sexiest garment made by human hand, so, so sexy.
I as a TV girl have always been riveted by female nylon under things, and over the years have accumulated a large collection of these absolutely gorgeous things from the golden age of their manufacture 1950 – 75. Some I actually bought in the shops and market stalls at the time, but much has been added more recently with the advent of eBay on the net, where specialist dealers can be found offering fab items every week. Unfortunately the best things can go for quite large sums, as I suspect other T-girls out there (you know who you are) are like me bidding for these lovelies, and the deepest pocket wins. But if you keep at it, you will win some auctions and start to build a collection.
As I said, wonderful nylon/chiffon nighties etc were on sale in every High Street store on labels like Prova, which was a BHS brand, Keynote from C&A, Dorothy Perkins and of course ‘blue label’
Marks & Spencer, all very affordably priced. But there were even more fabulous items to be had on up-market labels such as Vanity Fair, Shadowline and Van Raalte from America, with breathtaking designs and wonderful quality. These tend to change hands for large amounts of cash now, but were never cheap when new.
There does seem to be a bit of a revival in more feminine nightwear and under garments going on at the moment, due no doubt to renewed interest in the Burlesque, and even some mail order catalogues are once again offering ‘Babydolls’ and sexy slips. But the quality seems to be nowhere near the original vintage items of the sixties. Nylon/chiffon nighties/negligees and babydolls from this period are just the most gorgeous possible things you can have against your skin. Of course many of you know this all too well for yourselves and don’t need me to tell you what’s hot and what’s not.
In the pictures I have taken to go with this article, you can see little me modelling some choice examples taken from my own collection of classic nylon lingerie. Some of these beauties I have owned for nearly forty years,
while others are recent purchases from the internet.
The thrill of slipping between your bed sheets in one of these beauties is like nothing else on earth, a pleasure to be savoured as often as possible, day or night!
The design, colours, and lace/frill decoration found on chiffon and silky nylon nighties was almost endless sexy, black chiffon backed in pink slinky nylon, was a classic seduction garment of the period, much loved in Carry On films and Benny Hill shows, but my personal absolute favourites were and are pastel shades, especially pinks, a passion shared with others if prices for pink lingerie on eBay is anything to go by. Collectors like me will notice when searching sites how many more negligees without the matching nighties are surviving. This I suppose is inevitable due to the much heavier use the nighties received, becoming snagged and torn over time, while the negligee itself would often
survive in near perfect condition, hung behind the bedroom door, or stored away in drawers. So today, complete vintage two piece sets are very desirable.
For those of you who can remember the heyday of girlie sixties pin-up magazines sold on newsagents counters, such as the weekly PARADE and monthly titles like CARNIVAL, ESCORT, KNAVE etc will recall that most shots of the models of that era were posed featuring nylon lingerie, babydolls, negligees falling open and nylon frilly panties and black nylons of course. I always found pictures featuring such gorgeous frillies to be far more erotic and sexy than full nude shots. The added allure of a nylon covered ‘pussy’ was, and still is, a huge turn on for me.
To be continued in the next issue.
Carol, Lincolnshire
