Nowadays, a garter is known to be part of a wedding tradition; a bride wears a garter to her wedding, towards the end of the reception the groom removes it and tosses it to the unmarried male guests, thus symbolising deflowering. The belief behind this tradition is that if an article of clothing was taken from the bride it would bring good luck. Fun, yes? Of course! Although the actual use of a garter is for holding up a stocking or sock...
During WWII when nylon and rayon had restrictions, hose manufacturers created garters to help keep up the stockings. In this photo you can see she is wearing hold-ups (stockings with an band of elastic attached to it) and a garter belt (suspenders worn around the waist with 2 or 3 elastic strips attached to each side) which both help to hold up the stockings, but in this case the garter is being used to prevent bagging at the knees.
When nylon production came to a halt, women resorted to penciling in seams on the back of their legs with eyebrow pencils...a little off the subject of garters, but I thought it was a fun fact about the restrictions of WWII!
Not only were garters used to keep a messy look from occurring, but were a convenient way for ladies to carry small valuables, in place of a purse. Ah ha! Lightbulb...time to make a garter!
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