Up until the Middle Ages, socks were a status symbol

The oldest surviving knitwear was found in Danish Jutland and dates back to 1500 BC. The first stockings were found in Egypt in a village called Antinoe and date back to around 500 AD.

For a long time, stockings were a privilege of the rich, the manufacture of which was a secret and the knitting only reserved for noble ladies.

In the Middle Ages, stockings and trousers were still combined into one piece of clothing. Later, the stockings on the pants were replaced, so that the first stockings emerged as independent items of clothing.
 

The democratization of the sock

The English referendum William Lee invented the hand weaving chair, which made knitting easier. The English Queen Elizabeth I received black stockings as a gift in 1561, but refused him a patent for this invention, so Lee moved to France in 1589 and set up a stocking factory there, financed by King Henry V. Most socks were still made from wool.

Emigrating Huguenots later spread the chair throughout Europe. With this kind of industrialization, the socks became easier and easier to produce and also affordable for ordinary citizens. Accordingly, socks became more and more popular.
 

Socks in bulk

Referend William Lee's manual weaving chair was successively further developed until the first round weaving chairs were used at the beginning of the 19th century, which made it possible to produce socks largely by machine.

Over time, other different materials were processed and mass production progressed. As a result, socks became commonplace and the first industrially manufactured garment in the world.