Stockings

These 'Vita-Bloom' silk stockings are from early in the Second World War (1939-45) when silk stockings were still available and de rigueur for a well-dressed woman.

Marketing stockings

The stockings retain their original label, which provides graphically-rich information about the fashions and hairstyles of the time. This is supported by hundreds of advertisements in New Zealand newspapers in 1939 and 1940 for Vita-Bloom. An Evening Post advertisement on 14 September 1939 describes Vita-Bloom as the 'restoration of a protein which manufacturing previously removed from raw silk. It is the greatest hosiery discovery in years, giving lasting loveliness and perspiration-repellancy and new wear-resistance. Most important, Vita-Bloom sheers are economical to buy and to wear' (p. 21).

Essential accessories

Fine silk stockings were considered an essential accessory for women during this period and were marketed in terms of femininity and sensuality. An advertisement in The Evening Post on 24 October 1939 declares: 'To wear Vita-bloom sheers is to beckon to romance. Their beauty is the beauty of rose petals– smooth, soft, caressing' (p. 12).

Impacts of war and new technologies

By 1941, there were only five advertisements for Vita-Bloom stockings in New Zealand newspapers. From late 1941, raw silk supplies from Japan (a major silk producer) were cut off when Japan entered the Second World War. Hosiery was rationed from April 1942.

Vita-Bloom stockings resurfaced in 1948, making a 'starry-eyed post-war debut with Glamour' (Grey River Argus, 14 May 1948, p. 8). But by this time, nylons were firmly entrenched as the new fibre of choice for hosiery.