In the early 1940s, during World War II, the military needed silk to make parachutes. Silk was rationed, and there was hardly any left over to make underwear, stockings or other everyday products. Women found that rayon stockings bagged and leg makeup smeared or cracked. When the war was over, women jumped at the chance to buy the new sheer and silky nylon stockings. They crowded Frederick & Nelson and other Seattle stores when the first stockings arrived.

This November 1945 photo shows a crowd of women and a few men mobbing the counter at Frederick & Nelson when the first nylon stockings went on sale.

Written on negative: Nylon stocking sale - F & N 11-3-45.
Date photograph was filed at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (date of photograph and file date may differ by a month or more): November 6, 1945