All of our stockings are made using 100% Nylon on original Reading knitting machines, only a handful of which are still operational in the world today. Our Fully Fashioned stockings are knitted flat on the Reading machines which are maintained by our skillful knitters. The stockings are knitted from the top of the welt and are then shaped down the leg as the number of needles are increased and decreased to create the unique hosiery to fit your legs perfectly. Each machine makes 30 stockings at one time using around 18 000 needles. The unique machines are kept between 74 and 78 degrees to ensure they run smoothly. The machines run on a continual chain which has studs pressed into the links- this tells the machine which pattern to follow depending on which heel style is being knitted. Each time a different Fully Fashioned heel style is made the machine chain is changed which is a huge operation. Once the stockings come off the machine they are glass ironed which shows up any slight imperfections.
Seaming
Every Fully Fashioned stocking is seamed individually by skilled Seam Machinists on original Union Special sewing machines. This is where the ‘finishing loop’ at the top of the Fully Fashioned stockings is created and is the way to tell whether you have a genuine Fully Fashioned stocking. This loop is needed for the Seaming machinist to be able to finish the seam by turning the welt of the stocking in a circle.
Quality Checking
Each stocking leg is then pulled over a flat leg, here the product is checked for any flaws such as snags or mismatched heel designs. This is where our stockings are seperated into Perfects and Imperfects.
Steam Boarding
The next step is steam boarding, the stockings are pulled over a flat leg, and steamed to tighten the knit and define the leg shape correctly whilst removing any creases.
Dying
This is where the magic happens, with our ever growing colour collections. All our stockings start life as Greige which is a white colour, ready to be transformed. At our dyehouse we can dye upto 5 different colours a day! Each colour goes through a testing process and is delevoped in two dye types for stockings and our Perfect Match Lingerie. Limited Edition colours are dyed in small batches of around 100 pairs whilst our core colours can be dyed in lots upto 1000 pairs.
Packing
Each individual pair of stockings goes through a number of quality control processes at each stage of manufacture. After being dyed the stockings are checked for size and paired together before being hand folded into our Gio packaging and sent out to our customers across the world.
The making of a Fully Fashioned stocking is a real art which is executed by a skilled team of people here at Gio who are passionate about continuing the original manufacturing processes in England to bring you timeless Nylon stockings giving you a touch of elegance and sophistication.
