British Pathe

C/U of a young woman, Maureen Pearson, wearing a hairy orange coat and looking in a shop window at some very 1960s lampshades; tilt down to show she is wearing stockings over her shoes as part of a durability test. C/U of her feet as she walks across a road.

M/S in a factory workroom in Hendon,...

C/U of a young woman, Maureen Pearson, wearing a hairy orange coat and looking in a shop window at some very 1960s lampshades; tilt down to show she is wearing stockings over her shoes as part of a durability test. C/U of her feet as she walks across a road.

M/S in a factory workroom in Hendon, London, as we see people cutting out fabric shapes with electric cutters; M/S of a man, Bill Rolph, cutting through several layers of nylon fabric held together by bulldog clips and examining the shape. High angle M/S and C/Us of Kay Collarbone cutting.

Amazing M/S in the machine room of the factory where several women work at sewing machines; each one is surrounded by clouds of white nylon stockings! Commentator talks of this new method of making stockings: the fabric is knitted into rolls with a double-locking stitch using five times as many needles as usual. The stocking shape is then cut out from the rolls and a specially made foot shape is sewn on. C/Us of Lucy Bomba seaming a stocking on a machine; Iona Johnson seaming a welt at the stocking top. High angle M/S two women sorting the stockings (now dyed a flesh colour) into pairs; a blonde woman is measuring the stockings and placing them on different hangers.

C/U of a pair of stockings draped over a cactus plant (another durability test); Ola Scott, (designer and director of Scott-Centenaire who make the stockings), lifts a stocking off the plant and holds it up against the light to check for flaws. She pulls the stocking on over her hand and arm, drawing her hand back through it to check again, then turns to her husband, Bernard Scott, who tests it by scraping a nail on a piece of wood over it. Ola examines the stocking with a magnifying glass.

M/S of Maureen Pearson sitting on the floor and dangling one of the stockings above a black kitten on her lap. They are surprisingly sheer considering they are so tough!

Note: there is a glossy advert on file for these stockings - 'Have you ordered your Carefree nylons?' Just try and stop me!