Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

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Produced by Sun Valley Tan of Des Moines, Iowa, the Stocking Stick was part of a short-lived WWII trend wherein, due silk and nylon rationing, women took to simulating hosiery using various home-brew and commercial paint-on "liquid stockings."

Kodak Wartime Developing Kit video: youtu.be/hUg8f-VS_3Y
Kodak Postwar Developing Kit video: youtu.be/xl0mKUG2aoI
Japanese Hit Cameras video: youtu.be/0vO_88GDazA

0:00 Introduction
0:40 Silk, Rayon, and Nylon
2:06 Silk and Nylon Rationing
4:30 Homebrew Liquid Stockings
5:19 Commercial Liquid Stockings
6:15 Application and Leg Bars
7:02 War’s End and Nylon Riots
7:49 Further Reading
8:23 Outro


SOURCES

pearldavies.com/post/2016-1-25-improvising-stockings-drawing-nylon-seams-with-gravy-juice-yum

glamourdaze.com/2013/01/1940s-wartime-fashion-paint-your-own-stockings.html

rarehistoricalphotos.com/nylon-stockings-shortage-1940s

smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/paint-on-hosiery-during-the-war-years-29864389

perfumepassage.org/news/paint-hosiery-during-war-years

interesly.com/nylon-stockings-gravy-juice

weheartvintage.co/2015/12/10/ww2-fashion-liquid-seamed-stockings

minsooky.com/the-liquid-stockings-craze-of-the-1940s