Nylon stocking dermatitis: An unusual example

We report herein a woman sensitive to nylon stockings of only brown or tan shade. Her situation is interesting for several reasons: she does not react to paraphenylediamine and she reacts to red and yellow dyes, but not to blue or the finish; however, when finish is applied to dyed blanks (red, yellow, or blue) she reacts vigorously to all three. We suspect the finish reacts with the dyes to either expose or produce an antigen previously not available to the skin.