Lebourget 1953 - nylon stockings, originally uploaded by garter_belt_17.

In my entrepreneurship class I cite stockings as one example of evolving innovation. This ad from 1953 provides a telling illustration how stockings are an extension of the human impulse to rise above nature.

Transparent as air; the dress billowing in the wind; the soaring jet, the arc to infinity; looking to the future with a smile--this isn't just a nylon ad. It's consumer propaganda for the soul.