Such a product demanded equally inventive branding and packaging. Of course, pre-shaped stockings could not accommodate the figure of every woman who wore them, so L’egg’s super-stretchy, form-fitting designs were refreshing not only in their exceptional comfort and durability, but also in their elastic generosity that appealed to women of all body types. Additionally, prior to the conception of L’eggs, hosiery was shaped by stretching material over metal molds and applying heat to cause the hose to take on the silhouette of the ideal female leg. Pantyhose provided a more efficient, all-in-one alternative to the garter belt and individual stockings. Prior to 1959, women’s hosiery was a complicated system of straps: one wore a garter belt from which straps hung and clipped to thigh-high stockings. It is just one of the many lines created by L’eggs, which in the 1970s redefined women’s hosiery and ultimately introduced a novel approach to branding, packaging, and retail merchandising that matched the innovation of the product it promoted. With Sheer Elegance, L’eggs (a division of Hanes) became the first company to offer non-support pantyhose made with spandex to give the appearance and feel of silk in a more comfortable, form-fitting style. Bamboo stalks spray across the label at a diagonal, their red knuckles and leaves silhouetted against the black cardboard, insinuating the exotic luxury of wearing a material that “looks and feels like real silk from the Orient.” The L’eggs brand name (complete with egg-inspired lower case g’s) appears at the top left of the design, while the style name, “Sheer Elegance,” is articulated in white script across the middle. First introduced in 1969, L’eggs brought women’s hosiery out of the specialty shop and to the mass market, providing women with an alternative to the frippery of garters and stockings and simultaneously creating a merchandizing phenomenon that changed not only the hosiery industry but those of package design and visual retailing.Ĭooper Hewitt’s L’eggs egg boasts a black ovoid dome nestled into a cylindrical cardboard collar printed with product information the hue and size of the pantyhose are easily legible, stacked together on the right of the package. The plastic shine of the L’eggs egg pantyhose package is instantly recognizable to anybody who browsed grocery, drug, or convenience store shelves during the 1970s and ‘80s.
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