The Dye House. The stockings, in cotton bags, are placed in rotary vats very similar to those used for scouring but this time filled with very carefully selected and graded dyes where they are churned and mixed together until the yarn of the stocking absorbs the required amount of colouring.

Dyeing is a highly skilled occupation and sometimes stockings are returned over and over again to the dye vats to ensure perfection in colouring.

The combination of the dyes used is of course a closely guarded trade secret but there is a central organisation which issues standard colours for forthcoming stocking dyeing programmes. These colours, which have exotic names such as “Morning Mist”, “Purple Dawn”, “Sunbreeze”, and so on, are not rigidly adhered to by the different stocking manufacturers but are issued merely as a guide to them of the colours that are likely to be fashionable in the near future.

There are wide variations from year to year and even from season to season in women’s wants so far as the colour of their stockings are concerned. Within the space of only a year or two fashion may change from near nigger brown to flesh pink and the dye experts must be prepared to produce whatever is wanted by the customer.