丝袜的故事Ⅱ：战争年代的“丝袜妆”
With nylon or silk hose hard to come by, women had the look of stockings brushed on their legs.
So it’s Saturday night in 1941, and you want to wear stockings with your cocktail dress, but the new wonder material nylon has been rationed for the war effort and has disappeared from department store shelves. What do you do in such times of patriotic privation? You get resourceful, and cover your legs with a layer of nude-colored makeup, and line the back of each leg with a trompe l’oeil seam.
A successful application of liquid stockings and seams.
Last week, in the first post from the Stocking Series, we heard about the huge reception of nylon hosiery. On May 16, 1940, officially called “Nylon Day,” four million pairs of nylons landed in stores and sold out within two days! But only a year later, the revolutionary product became scarce when the World War II economy directed all nylon into manufacturing parachutes, rope and netting.
Liquid stockings were a noteworthy enough phenomenon that even the Smithsonian has a bottle in its collection. Leg Silque Liquid Stockings, National Museum of American History.
World War II poster, Amberley Museum, Britain.
As duty prevailed, a new fashion arose from the nylon ration. Liquid stockings, it was called. A foundation for your legs, applied carefully and evenly for the illusion of hose. Advanced users got even more realistic by using black eyeliner pencils to draw the “seam.”
Drawing in the seam-line on “Makeup” stockings with a device made from a screw driver handle, bicycle leg clip, and an eyebrow pencil, 1942. Bettman/Corbis
Having trouble with your seam? No problem! This contraption, made from a screwdriver handle, bicycle leg clip and an ordinary eyebrow pencil would do the trick!
Leg makeup bar, 1944, at a department store.
For those women overwhelmed by options— Ann Barton’s Leg Make-up, Harriet Hubbard Ayer’s Stocking Lotion, Patrick’s Leg Art, Leg Charm from Cosmetic House, Helena Rubinstein’s Leg Stick and Max Factor’s Pan-Cake Make-up, for starters—or unsure about application techniques, a leg makeup bar at their local department store could provide some guidance for beautifying their gams.
在尼龙袜和丝袜都十分稀缺的时代，妇女们想出了在腿上“画丝袜”的法子。
假设我们回到了1941年。这是一个星期六的夜晚，你想穿上鸡尾酒裙，搭配一双尼龙袜，但是这种奇妙的新材料已经被专用于生产军需物资了，商店柜台上找不到它们的身影。在那样一个理应为国奉献的时刻，怎么才能两全其美呢？于是你灵机一动，在腿上涂了一层裸色粉底，还在腿后补上一条几可乱真的“线缝”。
完美的“丝袜妆”
在上周的《丝袜的故事I》中，我们已经感受到了当时尼龙袜的火爆。1940年5月16日史称“尼龙日”，在这一天，四百万双尼龙长袜运抵全美各地的商店，并于两天之内销售一空。但不到一年后，美国宣布参加二战，尼龙成了限额配给品，专用于生产降落伞、网和绳索，尼龙袜这一革命性的产品在市面上销声匿迹。
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液体丝袜的流行是一个非常值得注意的现象，美国的史密森尼博物馆里也收藏了一瓶“液体丝袜粉底霜”。
二战时期的海报，现收藏于英国的安伯莉博物馆。
公民义务高于爱美之心，但这样的局面也催生出了一种新时尚。那就是：液体丝袜。这是一种在腿上用的粉底霜，将它均匀地抹在腿上后，你看起来就会像穿着丝袜一样。更有时髦女子，用黑色眼线笔在腿后描上了“线缝”。
不会画线缝吗？没关系！上图中的小工具会是你的好帮手。它的构造十分简单，只需要一个螺丝刀手柄、一个自行车裤腿夹和一根普通的眼线笔。
百货商店中的美腿吧摄于1944年
那时，很多化妆品牌都推出了美腿化妆品，其中不乏蜜丝佛陀等著名品牌，叫人眼花缭乱。此外，各地的百货商店中往往开设有美腿吧，无法选定腿妆品牌或不太会画腿妆的妇女都可以到此寻求建议。
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