It's been so long

Gosh has it really been over a year since I updated this blog? I may try and blow off the cobwebs after I visit BHS on Sunday. I was walking through there the other day. They have a side entrance which leads to my place of work and handily it now goes straight through the ladies hosiery department since they had a bit of a reshuffle. Their winter range is out and I noticed some nice thick cotton 100 denier cable-knit tights in a cream colour. Think I'll buy a pair then and let you know how I get on, if anyone is still out there... yell if you can hear me.

Old stock from Aristoc

Me, a snob? I don't think so. Okay, so I admit to being a big fan of M&S but I'm also just as likely to be found wandering the aisles of those "everything for £1" shops. Anything to break the boredom of my lunch hour during the working week.

The reason for this? In the shopping centre close to the office is one such "pound shop" I visit fairly regularly. Actually, I think I've mentioned it in a previous post. If I remember rightly I bought some lace-bottomed footless tights and two pairs of Aristoc semi-opaque tights in red and bottle green!!! Anyway, on a recent visit I struck gold again (or "Vaguely Black" in this case) with this pair from Aristoc...


I believe that Aristoc still sell this line, albeit with a differently-designed packet, and at 99p they were, as David Dickinson would say, "cheap as chips".


I really like the old design of the packet, which brought back memories of me buying tights from newsagents and corner shops as a nervous, spotty adolescent! I also happen to LOVE shiny tights. And, as these are called ULTRA surely they are the shiniest tights of all? Well not quite but they certainly convey a decent sheen.


The trouble with "pound" shops is that they stock whatever they can get hold of. That means you don't get a choice of sizes, hence MEDIUM/LARGE was the only option, although I would have preferred a size up.


To say that sizing in women's hosiery is confusing is an understatement. I think its closer to a minefield. Whereas MEDIUM and LARGE in some brands just about fit me, I'm sorry to say these were just too small and I found it difficult to stretch the legs beyond mid-thigh comfortably (sigh!).

On a positive note, these tights have a really good reinforced box section either side of the gusset seam which you can just see in the picture below. I really love the toe detail and the colour is impeccably even and super sheer throughout.


As the saying goes, beggars can't be choosers! Every cloud has a silver lining and if this has taught me anything it's that I need to get the hoover out on that rug!

Going dotty for tights at M&S

I'm a massive fan of M&S. For me the brand is so quintessentially English. Very traditional and sometimes a little old-fashioned but that is what makes it so endearing and an enduring success.

I just love shopping for tights there. The staff are always polite and never fazed by serving a guy who might possibly be buying hosiery for himself.

On a recent visit I was taken by the whole retro fashion fad which is so bang on trend. I was perusing the hosiery and came across some dot-patterned tights which took me right back to the 1980s and the era of Lady Di.

One of my first experiences of wearing tights was sneaking into my mum's bedroom and borrowing some dotty stockings, so when I saw these I just had to have them for old time's sake.

These tights are part of the M&S "Autograph" collection and in a lovely shade of sheer black (unlike those navy blue stockings I so excitedly slipped onto my legs back in the 1980s). But the dot pattern was a very faithful replica so I decided to part with the £8 asked for a pair, quite a lot of money I thought for a pair of 10 denier sheer tights. Okay, so they had flat seams, but £8 seems a lot for one pair of department store tights so they'd better be good, I thought.

However, on pulling the tights on, they seemed a little short in the leg for an XL size. I really had to struggle to stretch the tights all the way up to the correct position, which has never been a problem previously with XL in M&S tights. Maybe I had put on a bit of weight since my last foray? Perhaps I was just out of practice or a little sweaty and anxious, maybe? But these tights were definitely a little on the small side.

On the positive side I loved the retro dotty pattern and appreciated the sheer-to-waist aspect, And the flat seams were there (but to be honest, flat seams or otherwise never really seem to make much difference in comfort to me).

But was it just me or was the colour a little uneven? No matter how much I smoothed the legs up my thighs I really struggled to get an even sheer tone, with an almost semi-opaque look to the lower leg that looked more like 30 denier. I kept pulling them down and pulling them up but the end result was never perfect and if you look closely at the image below, the thighs do look quite over-stretched and banded.

So, could this be a pair of M&S tights I don't actually like? Well. I probably won't buy another pair, but the feeling of buying some dotty tights after all these years took me way back (even if they were not in navy blue) and was an enjoyable trip down memory lane. So, in terms of the experience I enjoyed them. But these have to go down as a fashion mistake...

Shocking... stockings back on the agenda

Well it's been a while. I can't believe the whole winter has passed by without me using the bike to work as an excuse to wear thick tights! The whole promotion at work thing got me thinking that I should make more of an effort to be a "regular guy" and set the right example.

Well, it doesn't work, I tell you. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!

Since my last post I went for quite a while without wearing tights. Then, for some reason, I started thinking about stockings and what it would be like to wear them with suspenders under my trousers.

Now I know what you are thinking. This site is about tights, isn't it? Well, please read on...

I knew I would need to buy a suspender belt and had a look in my local Asda supermarket. It was coming up to Valentine's Day at the time so I knew they would have wheeled out a stock of "romantic" items. And they didn't disappoint.

They didn't have any suspender belts though, only "suspender briefs". These were a pair of cheap red and black lacy knickers (£4, size 16) with suspenders built into them. So I bought these, together with a cheap pair of George stockings.

It was quite thrilling pulling up the stockings. The thing I remember loving the most about stockings from my childhood is that deep welt that sits at the top of the thigh and the sheer loveliness below.

But it was a real faff, hitching them up. The two clips at the front were easy enough but the back two were really fiddly and took ages. But I persisted and eventually attached the stockings and managed to adjust them to make them reasonably comfortable.

Because the stockings pulled directly on the knickers I expected them to have the effect of pulling the knickers down, but I was surprised at how well they stayed in place under my jeans.

I walked into the shopping centre and couldn't help wondering how many women in the town were wearing stockings at that moment. I came to the conclusion that I was one of the only ones, if not the ONLY person wearing stockings.... and I'm not even a woman!

It filled me with real excitement and a sense of uniqueness. But there was also a tinge of sadness.

There were countless women wearing tights, but let's spare a thought for the poor, humble stocking. That is why I will always find time to wear a a pair every now and then...

Autumn has its advantages

Looking out of my window, it's the end of summer (sob!) But so what? It's not like we had much of one (again) this year. And now it's that time of year when all the stores start to roll out the hosiery displays again (yeehaa!). Summer is the bare season when the hosiery takes a back stage. I was walking past the TKMaxx store in our local shopping centre only the other day when I noticed the return of the hosiery cart, which was already starting to bulge with a multitude of sheer and winter tights. I love the way some of the women open up the packaging and the legs just spill out everywhere, creating a multicolour display of nylon and lycra. So autumn and winter isn't quite so bad after all, just think of all those yummy opaques.
I just realised I posted a similar blog to this one about a year ago. Time flies doesn't it?

Like the new design, by George!

You may remember a while ago how I enthused about Asda Supermarket's Naturals tights (Seek out the review). Well, I noticed recently the improved packet design which I must share with you. The model is now revealing a lot more of the tights, including that gorgeous patterned brief. Naturally I had to buy a pair, in barely black (XL). I can't wait to try them on. Hopefully the tights are as good as ever!

I'm back... and in knee-highs believe it or not!

Hi everyone. I appreciate its been a while since my last post. Time has simply flown by and a couple of life-altering episodes have hit me since, not least the birth of my second daughter and the credit crunch, which sparked a round of redundancies with my employer.
To cut a long story short I survived to live another day, and got a new job which kind of distracted me for while on my favourite pastime. After all, what would my new colleagues think of me if they caught a glimpse of my legs adorned in 10 denier nylon and lycra?
I started getting a little self conscious all over again about getting caught wearing tights and started to think of ways to help build up the confidence again.
I came up with the idea of buying knee-highs, an item which, along with pop socks, I had previously completely discarded.
My reasoning was that I could slip them on simply, like stockings, and cover them up with a pair of man socks. I could then spend a whole day at work feeling the knee-highs rolled down around my ankles but covered with the man socks. At least then, no one, at work at least, would see the feminine nylon covering my lower leg, for the time being.
My first purchase was a pair of Asda knee-highs with a "comfort sole". I really liked the natural shade and the sole resembled that of a fully-fashioned stocking with a thick under-sole. I'm not sure it made much difference to the actual comfort of the garment but it certainly looked the part.
On the way home I would remove my socks before embarking on the bus, and any fellow passenger who cared to look in the direction of my feet may have caught a glimpse of the feminine nylon that ensconsed my calf. It felt quite naughty on my travels home, just reward, I thought, for a hard day's toil!
The knee-highs certainly served a purpose, and now the confidence has been restored, I am glad to report it is back to tights, full-time, for me!