Before the war considerably more fully fashioned stockings were imported into the U.K. than were actually knitted here. British stockings are now as fine as those produced anywhere in the world, and indeed in many countries British nylons are preferred to all others.
In 1949 Kayser Bondor produced 14% of the national export total and 12% of the fine gauge full fashioned hosiery production in this country. Their hosiery mills are the largest in Europe. Before the war they manufactured chiefly pure silk stockings — from the 12 thread heavy service weight to the gossamer 2 thread silks — and a few rayon and lisle. During the war only rayon and lisle stockings were made. Since the war and ever-increasing percentage of Kayser Bondor stockings have been made of nylon.
Five-thread pure silk and chiffon lisle stockings were also popular — they were the 'service weight' stockings. Fine lisle stockings, however, are today an expensive luxury, due to the very high cost of Egyptian cotton yarn. Very fine pure silk stockings are not being manufactured because they cannot compare with nylon either in sheerness or in wear. Some women will always prefer them, however, because of their cling, their softness to handle and their soft, dull finish, and they are, of course, stronger than anything but nylon itself.
With the exception of lisle, the yarns as they arrive at the factory at Baldock or Dowlais are not ready for immediate knitting. To facilitate their handling during the various spinning processes the synthetic yarns have been given a thin coating of protective gum — the silkworm very thoughtfully provides his own — which makes them too hard and brittle for satisfactory stitch formation and they must be softened and made pliable before they can be used. Silk is left in a special conditioning room with a moisture-laden atmosphere for a period of about 5 days; rayon-mixture yarns are treated in the same way, though they take less long to soften. Nylon dries and hardens so quickly that the thread must pass through a special little trough of softening solution attached to the knitting machine itself.
All yarns are not, of course, of the same thickness. It may be thought that the hosiery trade prefers to shroud the whole subject in mystery by talking in terms of deniers, a minute French measurement of weight. The clue to it is that the higher the denier the thicker the yarn. Kayser Bondor nylon stockings are knitted of 30 denier and 15 denier yarn — the finest and sheerest of all. Those known as 'crystal' nylons are knitted of mono-filament 15 denier nylon, most yarns being composed of several threads or filaments spun or twisted together.
The next difficulty is the question of gauge. The gauge refers to the number of needles to a given section of the knitting frame and has nothing to do with the yarn. The higher the gauge the closer-knit and therefore the finer the stocking. Before the war the majority of knitting machines in general use were 42 gauge; the finest stockings then obtainable were knitted on a 51 gauge machine, but there were not many of these in England. Kayser Bondor used to make the biggest range of full fashioned stockings in the country — knitting 30 denier nylon on 45 and 51 gauge machines; 15 denier nylon on 51 and 60 gauge machines, and 'Lacelon', their nylon mesh stocking, in both 15 and 30 denier yarn. A stocking made on a 60 gauge machine knitting 15 denier mono-filament nylon yarn is as exquisitely fine as any stocking obtainable — or even, to the lay mind, imaginable.
The first full fashioned stocking knitting machines were invented as long ago as 1589 by a Nottingham curate named William Lee, the first power-operated frame was patented by William Cotton in 1864. There have been no changes of principle in these machines, but knitting has been made speedier and more automatic. A whole stocking can now be knitted, from the inside of the welt to the toe, without any break and without any intervention by the knitter, though he must be there like a nurse at a sick bed, keeping the machine under a watchful eye in case anything should go wrong. The machine itself — which he has previously set and threaded — knits the welt, turns it (the welt is always double so that it will take greater strain, and to give greater strength it is knitted more slackly and in thicker yarn than the rest of the stocking), makes a row or more of 'picot' for extra stretch, knits the inch or so of welt continuation (after or underwelt) and continues down the thigh with a single thread. It fashions the thigh and calf of the stocking, narrowing it by knitting two stitches together to produce the fashion markings. (The length of the stocking is naturally determined by the size, and the larger the size the longer the stocking — between calf and thigh.) It fashions the heel and splices it — using nylon to splice nylon stockings and cotton to splice silk, cotton or rayon — and shapes and splices the toe. All this, on the most modern machines, in 37 minutes. On earlier machines the splicing threads had to be introduced by the knitter and each welt separately turned by him, but as the machines became more and more complicated his task was made easier and that of the maintenance engineers proportionately more difficult. Needless to ay, this greater degree of speed and automaticity has vastly increased production. One man on the latest type of 30 section machine can produce 80 dozen pairs of stockings a week, and as two shifts were worked, the weekly output per machine was some 160 dozen pairs.
The knitting rooms are kept at a controlled temperature of 74 deg. F, all the year round. The first things that the winter visitor notices — apart from the rhythmic clatter of the machinery — are the warmth and the staff working in their shirt sleeves. It is essential with such delicately adjusted machinery that the rooms are kept at this accurately controlled temperature. The smallest change, with its resulting expansion or contraction of the machine parts, could wreck this extremely sensitive and expensive plant. Another surprise to the visitor is the phantom appearance of the stockings at this stage of their lives, as far removed from the coveted many-hued beauties in their cellophane envelopes as cocoon from butterfly. Still stiff with gum until they go to the dyehouse, they are white or sour green, or a ghostly mauve, coloured with a light fugitive dye which simply serves to distinguish one yarn from another.
First of the many tests that each newly knitted stocking must undergo before it leaves the factory. Stretched out flat against a dark background, the stockings are smoothed out with a large 'iron' of transparent plastic, through which any defect is clearly visible.
As they emerge from the knitting machines the stockings are subjected to the first of the long series of careful examinations for quality — small pulled threads and ladders are invisibly mended and any stocking showing a more serious defect is rejected. (The spacing of the fashion markings makes a convenient code by which the machine on which a faulty stocking was knitted can be instantly traced and any mechanical defect remedied.) A spot test is carried out on each batch of stockings to make sure that the number of courses to the inch is constant — a test of what is called tension in home-knitting.
Linking the heels and toes of the stockings is a very delicate task.
From the knitting rooms the stockings are passed to the girls who link and seam them. Linking the heels and toes is done first and then the whole stocking is seamed. They are difficult jobs, requiring skill and good eyesight. In this department, too, is the examination machine a leg-shaped form on which each stocking in turn is stretched and carefully examined for faults. Before being seamed each stocking has also been examined by X-ray — stretched flat on a dark surface and smoothed out with a large 'iron' of transparent plastic through which any defect in the knitting is clearly visible. No stocking leaves any department of the factory unless it has passed a strict examination.
Girls work at a great speed in seaming the legs and feet of the stockings — another job that calls for a great deal of skill, good eyesight and concentration. The work is popular and well-paid.
Last inspection of the stockings before they are dyed and finished. Every stocking in turn is stretched on a leg-shaped machine and carefully examined for faults. Only perfect stockings are passed on to be bagged for dyeing.
All the stockings knitted at Baldock and Dowlais are dyed in the dyeing room at Baldock, and so is the nylon tricot fabric knitted in the factory.
The stockings knitted at both Baldock and Dowlais now go to the model dyehouse at Baldock. Few hosiery manufacturers dye and finish their own stockings — it is a highly specialised business demanding a very great deal of special knowledge and up-to-date machinery. Here, too, the tricot fabrics knitted at Baldock are dyed.
Each yarn requires a different type of dye. Animal fibres such as wool and silk demand one kind, vegetable fibres (cotton and the type of rayon that is made from wood) another, and mineral or synthetic yarns like nylon or rayon acetate yet a third kind. Combinations of fibres get a combination of dyes. In addition there is the further complication that different dyes take a different length of time to 'strike' and that different yarns are dyed at different temperatures — silk, for instance at 208oF and the synthetic fibres — which would become plastic at so great a heat — at 175 deg. F. Each batch of stockings must have its own treatment. The stockings are bagged in large bags, and even this is a skilled job, for indifferent bagging mean uneven dyeing. They are then put into the dyeing machines which, with their huge paddles — adjusted to different speeds depending on the type of yarn being dyed — and swirling lather, resemble nothing so much as enormous washing machines, and for the first ten minutes or so they are scoured to remove the protective gum and the distinguishing dye of the yarn. (Detergents are used for all synthetic fibres and soap for all natural yarns.)
The dyestuff is then added and the dyeing proper begins. (The amount of dye used depends incidentally on the weight of the fabric being dyed and it makes no difference how much or how little water is used to dilute it.) With stockings the whole process takes about 4½ hours and each machine should do two runs a day. The newest machines — and British machinery of this type is second to none — can take as many as 800 dozen pairs of nylons at a time. After dyeing, the stockings are machine-dried and finally 'finished'. The finishing solution chose has a great deal to do with the final appearance of the stockings and also gives them their luxurious softness and strengthens them against snags. Pure silk is given a dull finish to counteract the tendency to look shiny, nylon an anti-snag finish, rayon what is known as a 'soft' finish, and lisle stockings need a slight stiffening.
Not only are all the stockings and fabrics knitted at Dowlais and Baldock dyed and finished at Baldock, but the dyes themselves are mixed on the premises.
Like all other shades, stocking dyes are of course compounded of the three primary colours in differing proportions. Dyeing is a scientist's job, but like perfume-blending it cannot always be achieved by scientific means. It is not, however, the dyer himself who decides what shades will be available to the customer. That is settled by the merchandising department. A definite number of shades is decided on each season, but the dyer will be asked to match and mix other colours over and above these — for a special export order perhaps. In his laboratory are samples, too, of the subtle variations of delicate pearl grey that Queen Mary orders. And here you can look through the shade cards of past years — and nothing makes the past seem so far away as to observe that half-remembered sequence of colours — the soft golden beiges of the mid-twenties, the dark stockings that succeeded them, the garish pinks and 'nudes' that were fashionable in their turn, and the sultry copper and wine that predominated just before the war
Next, the stockings go to the Trimming department, but before this there is another spot check to ensure that each batch has been satisfactorily dyed and finished.
There is a surrealist quality about a trimming room, with its rows and rows of legs sticking straight into the air and figures flitting quickly from one to another, deftly fitting a stocking on to each leg, giving it, as it seems, a quick caress and passing onto the next. This process serves to dry the stockings; the legs are electrically heated — each row can be switched to three different heats — low for pure silk, medium for cotton and high for rayon or mixture. The heat is also so controlled that it is strongest at the welt, less strong for the foot, and least for the leg of the stocking, which would otherwise dry more quickly than the rest. As it is, each stocking is dry all through in a matter of minutes. Nylon having the invaluable property of retaining for ever and ever the shape into which it is set under steam pressure, is somewhat differently treated — the stockings have to be 'boarded' in what look like giant bakers' ovens.
The last and strictest examination of all. Graders at their specially designed and individually-lit tables scrutinise the finished stockings and sort out those that are not quite perfect. The stockings are the paired, packed and labelled ready for despatch.
In the Grading department all the stockings get their last and strictest examination of all. The graders, men for the most part, work at special slanting tables with individual angled lighting and racks onto which they sort the stockings. Each one comes under the most careful scrutiny. Any tiny mendable faults are attended to and the stockings are graded into Perfects and 'Not Quite Perfect'. (No stocking of a lower grade will be sold under the Kayser Bondor name — and a 'Not Quite Perfect' stocking must not contain even the most tiny mend which would be visible when worn. So no woman need hesitate to buy such a pair if she is given the chance — as if she would!) After being graded the stockings are paired, the welts stamped with the brand name, size, etc., and a newly-devised machine speedily inserts each pair into the cellophane bag in which they will reach the consumer. Each machine can deal with between 500 and 600 dozen pairs a day. The bags are then placed in cardboard boxes — three to each one — pink and grey boxes for an export order, the familiar black, cerise and white for the home market, and they pass down on a conveyor belt to the other end of the long grading room., where the boxes are printed with the size and colour of the stockings being passed out to despatch.
Fine gauge full-fashioned stockings are an essential part of the modern woman's wardrobe all over the world. Kayser Bondor meet this need with stockings of nylon, pure silk and chiffon lisle in six sizes, and in some styles three different lengths are obtainable.
The number of shades is large — within the necessarily limited range of colours suitable for stockings — and the Company's designers make a special point of choosing them with current fashion trends in both shoes and dress well in mind.
At home and abroad their 15- and 30-denier nylon stockings, both conventional and Lacelon styles are a coveted luxury, but by far the greater part of these are exported. Sheer, and subtle in colour, these stockings are the perfect complement to both day and evening clothes.
Each pair of Kayser Bondor stockings that leave the factory has undergone at least four examinations, and is as perfect as scientific research allied to individual skill and craftsmanship can make them.
Kayser Bondor have always been noted for their national advertising. The tape-bearing cupids here are a favourite symbol, repeated constantly in their publicity and display material. The illustration here is also a familiar figure to readers of national newspapers and magazines.
For images of the staff and premises, there is a pictorial essay here.
