Figure 1.--This Sears advertisement shows two different types of hose supporters still available in the 1940s. The all purpose waist on the left is not a hose supporter, but for outervgarments like short pants. It looks to be for younger children, but is available through size 12. This ad appeared in the Sears Fall and Winter 1943-44 catalog (p. 691).

The last time stocking supporters were worn to any extent was the 1940s, although they did not disappear until the early 1950s. They were still prominently advertised in the 1940s. They were available in quite a wide range of different types. Sears referred to them as "garter waists". Many were clearly targeted for younger children.

Sears

This ad appeared in the Sears Fall and Winter 1943-44 catalog (p. 691). The Sears, Roebuck and Co., huge merchandising firm centered in Chicago was founded by Richard W. Sears (1863-1914) and A.C. Roebuck (1864-1948). Sears had begun a career in mail-order business in Minnesota 1886. In Chicago he and Roebuck joined resources and formed a corporation in 1893 as a mail-order business under title Sears, Roebuck and Company. The catalog by the 1890s included just about any imaginable item. You could even purchase a complete house--all you had to do was assembkle it. In 1895 Julius Rosenwald (1862-1932) bought Roebuck's interest the in firm and became president on Sears's retirement 1908. A retail-store system was added 1925. The first foreign store added in Havana, Cuba during 1945 and becane te first expropriated store in 1960. The Sears-Roebuck catalog brought the production of industry to the fartherest corner of rural America, opening the cornucopia of the consumer age to rural America. All the new things that were changing American life danced across their pages. Through it, a huge Chicago warehouse offers to modernize the farms and small towns of the Midwest.

Garter Wists

This category applies to a broad variety of devices for holding up long stockings. Theoretically it would apply to any garment worn on the upper body used for this purpose (including underwaists, pantywaists, and suspender waists). But HBC uses the term to apply specifically to waists with hose supporters already attached, even though in some cases these supporters are detachable. Most of these garments are designed to have the strain of the garters carried by the child’s shoulders. Some have waistbands and some do not, but all are worn under the outer clothing and therefore as a species of children’s underwear. One of the first such garments we notice was in the Sears 1902 catalog Sears refers to a "combination belt and supporter, but the garment was essentially a garter waist. The use of different terms somewhat complicates the assessment if the garments. Interestingly, even when the wearing of long stockings was supposedly declining in the late 1930s and early 1940s, a proliferation of styles of garter waist became very prominent in the Sears and Wards catalogs of this period. We have more different styles for this period than for any other on HBC. A good example is the Sears 1939 garter waists.

Styles

Sears in 1943-44 offered two different styles of garter wasts in the ad here.

Child's all-purpose waist

Kern's garter waist

Known throughout the nation for its quality. Won't slip off shoulders. No buttons to come off. So comfortable and practical for children--no binding fleeing. They will like wearing it. [HBC Note: The advertising approach id to deny the obvious. The approach here is simply to deby the obvious truth. How can these sticking supporters be comfortable? What child would want to wear one?] No more pinning on supporters and strains on stockings. Slip-on in a jiffy. ... They can do it themselves. ... Saves you time. Wears wll and washes well. White cotton tape with adjustable side supporters. Sizes 2 through 12 in 2 size increments. Price $0.49

Ages

The sizes for the stocking supporters were through age 12, and 14 in the case of one style. HBC notes that most of the available adds from comparable Sears catalogs were only for boys through age 10. Also while the advertisements picture boys and girls age 10-12 in long stockings, the stocking supporter advertisements only picture younger children.

Country Trends

All of our information on stocking supporters at this time is American. We have no indormation about stocking supporters in other countries. German sources tell us that most mothers adopted ad hoc devices such as saftey pins or rubber bands rather than store bought stoking supporters as shown here.

Created: January 10, 2000
Last updated: 6:20 AM 8/31/2005