As November debuts, you may find yourself needing to bundle up for the pouring rains and gusting storms drowning out the Pacific Northwest skies. As Winter nears, so does the anniversary of the infamous Nylon Riots. “But Haley, what are the Nylon Riots?” I’m glad you asked, but before I answer myself pretending to be a curious reader, let’s take a look at what led up to the Nylon Riots.
The year is 1937, and the first pair of experimental nylon stockings were produced by DuPont’s headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, thanks to the efforts of Wallace Hume Carothers, an organic chemist working for DuPont who had invented the synthetic material known as nylon just two years prior. In 1939, nylon stockings made their introduction into society with an experimental sale only available to the wives of the worker at DuPont’s headquarters; All 4,000 pairs of the prototype stockings sold out in only 3 hours-nylons were a hit that soon made their way to the 1939 New York World Fair, taking the world by storm soon thereafter. On May 16th, 940, officially known as “Nylon Day,” nylons were on the shelves of every major retailer in the U.S, and over 4 million pairs were sold at $1.15 a pair, quickly overshadowing the fragile silk stockings that were popular throughout the 30s-Until the U.S joined WWII that is.
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S allocated nylon to better use: parachutes, ropes, tie cords, hammocks, aircraft fuel tanks, shoe laces, mosquito netting, and so much more. During this time, women around the world sought out nylons to what this author deems extreme extents; from painting them on with makeup or food (tea and gravy was most common) to buying them on the black market for upwards of $10 each (equivalent to around $210 today), to robbing them from unsuspecting households, women did almost anything to get back the look that nylons gave them.
Thankfully, in 1945 when the war ended, nylon stockings came back with a bang – or rather, a series of riots. When they were back in stores, thousands of women lined up for their limited supply, the worst of which could be seen in Pittsburg, with 40,000 women lining up for 13,000 pairs of nylons, New York’s Macy’s selling 50,000 pairs in just 6 hours, and San Fransisco closing down shops when over 10,000 women lined the streets in search of the commodity. The contention for these stockings was so great that it wasn’t uncommon for scratching, screaming, scuffling, and hair-pulling to be seen throughout the lines and in stores, much akin to today’s Black Friday sales. Other major cities saw much of the same, and it wasn’t until 1949 that DuPont could churn out enough nylon stockings to quell the demand that ensued after the war came to a close. — Haley Berger
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