Fatal Neon seamless pantyhose

Wolford catalogue

Wolford Fatal Neons

Some time in the 90's (about 1995?) Wolford, an upmarket Austrian hosiery manufacturer, commissioned Helmut Newton to produce a series of advertising photos. This is an outstanding example from the series. It features the then relatively new 'seamless' pantyhose construction. I think this was first introduced by Walford, and was copied by several other manufacturers.

The 'seamless' refers to the fact that instead of knitting two separate legs, each with half of the brief, and then sewing the two halves together, as is usually done, the two legs are knitted at the same time on a special machine, and then knitted together without a seam, to form the brief.

As can be seen, this form of construction gives a far more attractive brief than the older method. Unfortunately it is also more expensive. I don't know anything about the relative durability.

I gather these are still popular in Europe and in the States, but they were exceedingly expensive in Australia, and I have not seen them for some time. I can only assume that they did not become popular here, and are no longer imported.

I have also seen another brand of seamless pantyhose in the States, but, although these were made in one piece, they had a heavier reinforcing band where the two halves were joined together, and this considerably detracted from the visual appeal.

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