The history of socks

Socks are rooted in the fourteenth century ( about 1300 ), everything starts with the knitting of wool caps .
The most suitable areas for wool are: Mantova , Verona and Padua.
For silk: Milan and Naples.

In particular, Mantua is the most important production centre.
Teofilo Folengo Benedictine monk of Polirone (San Benedetto Po, MN) used to say: bretarolorum satis es mea Mantua plena.
In the sixteenth century we witness the transition from the exclusive production of caps to the production of socks, shirts, gloves and its counterparts in wool thanks to the development of the workings of ?gucchieria(knitting with needles).
It is precisely in the 16th century that in the cloister of San Simeone (Monastery of Polirone, MN) , thanks to the Map of Perugia (in the middle of 1500), the presence on the ground floor of tailoring and shoe workshops was highlighted. Like all Benedictine monasteries, natural fibres were used both for weaving (clothing by the monks) and for the realization of the pages of the miniated manuscripts (the wool was the main fabric).
In these years, knitted socks supplant fabric socks made by tailors.
They are the first ready made products, produced without the tailor's need.
Mantua in these years is the main centre of the knitting with needles.
Everything is destined to change, starting from 1589 with the invention of the Loom of Reverend William Lee of Calverton (Nottinghamshire, England).
Between 1629 and 1630 Mantua suffers the siege and the sack of the Lanzichenecchi, to which is added a plague epidemic. Those facts with the refusal of the innovation of the English loom make Mantuaa and its knitted production decline.
Padua and Verona took advantage of this crisis, becoming the two most important centres in Italy between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, until the end of the eighteenth century, when the decline of these cities began, the main reason being the refusal to adopt the loom.
Between the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century the first processes of new fabrics began, such as cotton and linen instead of silk.
Even the wool increases silk falls, while always remaining important.
In the nineteenth century new looms were introduced, as in 1864 the loom of William Cotton (large loom) and new American looms with selfacting needle , rectilinear or circular of small dimensions suitable for domestic work.
In Italy, Milan (Alto Milanese area) and Brescia during the nineteenth century became the two most important poles for the production of hosiery and knitwear.
Between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the spread of circular machines began, innovation in the production of socks and there was a slow but steady division of sectors between hosiery and knitwear. In the thirties of the twentieth century, 70% of the socks produced are made of cotton.
The spread of artificial fibres begins. With autarchy and war more products are produced with artificial fibres and for the army.
After World War II, we must wait until the 1950s for a recovery in production and consumption.
The production of Nylon women's socks began to take hold (discovered in 1938 in the Du Pont laboratories, whose success began in the 1950s). In these years the hosiery district was founded in Italy in Castel Goffredo (Mantova) . A district among Mantua, Brescia and Cremona, still the most important in the world. In Brescia, among others, we find the towns of Borgo San Giacomo, Botticino, Borgosatollo.
Between the 60s and 70s of the twentieth century women's stockings and the Italian knitwear and hosiery (much appreciated abroad) experienced a period of great diffusion and success.
Italian companies are unsurpassed for artisan, creative and innovative productions.
About Socks joins the territories of Brescia and Mantua; the long tradition of the Benedictine monks, the experience of Mantua and the district of the sock between Mantua and Brescia, create the unique excellence of a unique product.
Artisan quality, Made in Italy, Wellness and Pleasure … About Socks, designed for you.
Unsurpassed quality, Italian artisan tradition.