I saw these amazing photos on one of the ethnic pantyhose forums and they are taken by Alexander Zhuravlev, the website is in the watermark on the images. This was a fashion show from 2016 for Golden Lady and they were showing “Rock My Legs” collection of seamless pantyhose.
I am thrilled to see this nice white shade, however I haven’t seen it available for sale. Currently I am clearing out some Golden Lady 20 den seamless and Golden Lady 40 den seamless styles called My Secret. They are very popular, but kind of hard to get, I need to go through a Polish supplier and I know that they make me wait for a long time because they are ordering it from somewhere (likely Russia) themselves. It’s just not efficient, I prefer to continue working with factories directly and I wasn’t able to get a response from Golden Lady to open a wholesale account.
I also noticed that there were pink sheer seamless pantyhose in that show and even some seamless pantyhose with polka dot patterns. I haven’t seen those before! My suspicion is that they were made for that fashion show only.
Sad news! I just got an e-mail from Fogal in Toronto saying that they are closing down and having a great sale. Vancouver boutique already closed in the summer, and now Toronto location follows.
When Vancouver boutique closed down, I remembered bad service experience and the fact that Wolford is around the corner, and thought that it’s no wonder. But Toronto boutique actually had really good customer service!
One last boutique left in North American is in New York City. I have no news yet if it’s shutting down or not, maybe some New Yorker can tell me.
Someone told me that this is their strategy now to close down the retail stores and start to sell Fogal brand in other big upscale department stores. Fogal’s stay in Canada was quite brief (2012-2014), perhaps other legwear brands presented a lot of competition since not many people know even what Fogal is.
Below is a photo of Fogal seamless Una tights from that boutique.
Fogal is one of my favourite brands for hosiery. They have an amazing reputation and quality. So far my customer service experiences varied, so I choose to only go to the location where I know it’s excellent – Toronto Fogal Boutique.
Last time I’ve been to the Fogal store was 2 years ago, so I was really looking forward to another visit. One of my fans, David from Toronto, who helped me get more Fogal pantyhose before, invited me to go shopping there.
As we approached the store, I was wondering if the same person, Melanie, who helped me last time was still there. To my delight, as I opened the door, there she was! Melanie even remembered that I was from Vancouver. Can you imagine that level of dedication to the clients? I told Melanie about my trip to Cuba and how I managed to wear Fogal Cuban heel pantyhose there. It was so much fun, I wanted to get something similar since Cuban heel is so rare to find these days. She told me about a style of pantyhose that is similar to the stockings used for the Great Gatsby movie with a fancy design on the heel.
So I grabbed a few pairs, including an ultra sheer 6 den, and tried on the samples available in the store. Actually, I even had a look at the stay ups, but since fall is almost here, I decided to stick with pantyhose. Just for the record though, they are of very good quality.
Melanie, another female associate, and David gave their feedback as I was putting on all the samples in the change room. The 2nd associate there (sorry, didn’t get her name) even gave me some tips on how to put on the backseam to make it straight.
I would like to express my gratitude to David from Toronto for taking me out to the boutique and for buying these wonderful pantyhose for me. I ended up with new 3 pairs of Fogal (Brooke, Clelia, and 6 den) to take back to Vancouver and lots of good memories from the store.
Can you imagine a whole nation to be infatuated with mystical charm of tights and stockings? Let me assure you the one like that exists. And if you ever had a chance to travel to the Japanese capital, you’d get striking evidences first hand!
White Stockings at Harajuku District in Japan
A Place Where Hosiery is Inborn
You probably would never find such a chic-filled and style-savvy place on the entire planet as Harajuku district. This Japanese centre of street fashion is located between two Tokyo subway stations. Its style went through a lengthy time line of transforming traditional oriental attire into a modern look.
Historically, kimono costume would be worn with Japanese socks, so one could conclude that covering their legs with pantyhose is inherent in Japanese girls and women. By the same token, tights and stockings were never dealt with as an insignificant accessory in Tokyo culture, but rather the substantial part of dressing, and the showy one too!
Cosy Sporty Mix, Harajuku District in Japan
Lavish of various teenage fashion styles, streets of Harajuku are glowing with vivid colours, exquisite adornments and thoughtful combinations of young girls’ ensembles, representing innocent Lolita, moody Gothic, multi-layered and glorious decora, cosy sports mix, and extravagant cyberpunk just to name a few. As we have highlighted before, garments consisting of skirts and dresses are generally more preferable than those with pants, although shorts are widely accepted by the younger generation.
Gothic Outfit, Harajuku District in Japan
Depending on the chosen style, hosiery is matched accordingly to the outfit. Whether it will be above the knee length socks with red hearts to compliment playful girlie look or skin-tone pantyhose with spider-on-the-web prints to highlight Gothic disposition of the wearer, Japanese girls give their leg wear as much attention as to the rest components of outfit.
Girly-Girl theme, Harajuku District in Japan
Due to numerous fashion shops and malls at the Harajuku district, there is no lack of textured, patterned, coloured, and of various thickness tights. Every type you could only wish for is there.
Lolita Style Outfits
What clothing element could more gracefully polish the tender Lolita appearance if not a pair of matching pantyhose?! Burgundy checkered tights decorate one Lolita’s hussar-style uniform outfit and kissing angels print on white tights highlight the holiday spirit in another Lolita’s attire. These are just examples of two different forms of Lolita style that is featured by abundance of frills, lace, bows, ribbons, etc.
Lolita Outfit with White Pantyhose
Lolita Outfit with Checkered Pantyhose
Short Skirts are Balanced With Oversized Tops
As you can see in the accompanying photos, the determining factor of Japanese street fashion is experimenting with and mixing the styles for the sake of fun solely. No matter how short are the skirt hemlines, Harajuku fashion can never be called lewd and meaningless. Yes, girls show a lot of leg, but it is combined with flowing silhouettes of loosely tailored clothing that is quite often waist-concealing and voluminous on top. Even with such omnipresent hosiery to boot, the style overall doesn’t come off as provocative. Tokyo teenage fashion is always fresh and fun, akin to its trend setters and trend bearers.
Colourful Outfit, Harajuku District in Japan
Cosplay Fun Outfits
The similar rule is also applied to another prominent counterpart to Harajuku regular style shows, called cosplay (what literally means don the costume and play). Major Motoko Kusanagi’s disguise from Ghost in the Shell animated movie is one of the examples (the film which handles nudity in the most chaste way possible). Such cosplay enthusiasts usually dress themselves as fictional or iconic characters from renown band, game, feature film, manga or any other mainstream release, creating for this purpose actual piece-of-art costumes worthy of being exhibited on high fashion catwalks. And the tendency to plentifully use hosiery in cosplay outfits prevails here too.
There is a whole lot of ways to draw public attention to your irresistible self, but the next case can simply render you speechlessly perplexed, especially if you at least a bit care for your appearance, particularly, the look of your legs.
It was one of those entertainment TV shows, Shopaholics, aired on Russian MTV channel, with very simple set of rules. Several contestants are given 5000 RUB each (approximate equivalent for 160 USD) and a restricted span of time (an hour, seemingly) to stir up their creative inner-stylist while rushing around the designated mall and hunting up the garments. Afterwords, finds are put on, exhibited in front of jury’s panel, judged and mocked on by the respective board and the decision upon winner is brought out.
Short clip of the Shopaholics, that we offer for your amusement alongside this post, shows popular Russian TV/radio host and fashion model Victoria Bonya, as she is impertinently getting rid of pantyhose right away on the faux catwalk stage. The broadcast is in Russian, so let’s highlight vital points in conversation.
When the clip commences, Victoria is praised on her choice of dress and hair-do by the first stylist and suddenly he came to halt with flattering to make a remark about her tights. To put it the way he said it might have sounded like ‘they knocked me out’.
While the main stylist, Vitaliy Kozak, haven’t even taken his opportunity to end the phrase, the resourceful participant of Shopaholics interrupted him, expeditiously catching at the chance to remedy the situation, ‘I can take them off! Would you like?..’ Then two of judging stylists seemed to goad her in a jest to doing thus, but Bonya pulled up the hem of her dress and started to wriggle out of reportedly misused pantyhose.
The jury was stunned, but our bold competitor effortlessly and shamelessly proceeded, ‘Look, I’m a fashion model, and as you know they, models, are used to putting things on and undressing straight away at the show. It’s not that complicated… You know why (I opted to wearing tights under the dress)?.. Because of the shoes! Don’t know why, those spangles led me astray!’
Pantyhose were thrown away, new Victoria’s look sans tights was approved without exception. Moreover, male stylist dilated on the subject of pantyhose having suggested to wear them only in the winter and strictly under the trousers (everyone is entitled to their opinion, so we will skip this statement without response).
In her behind-the-scene commentaries, the girl also elaborates on her prompt decision, ‘I realized if I would not have taken the tights, that would be my blunder. So I eagerly doffed them without any concern of cameras and the like. I terribly apologise if somebody was embarrassed by this move, but I didn’t take off the underwear, it was just tights!’
As the bottom line, it’s obvious, that daring blonde appeared much better looking after having replaced matte pantyhose with her tanned bare skin. However, the question yet abides: what were you thinking of meanwhile picking up all that attire, given that you were surely aware the duds should come in line with each other. Maybe, to strut all your stuff at once?
Black dress with a gaudy pompous frills athwart, perked up with nude sparkly pumps, and finally diluted by lustreless, apparently thickish for the-purpose-in-hand legwear. Why don’t simply position one thing into focus and gather the rest pieces in accordance to the staple garment? In the end, you don’t ascribe your faulty look to shoes or hosiery or whatever, if it was you who chose them!
Elissey Kostsov, one of the judges.
Vitaliy Kozak, main stylist in the show.
*Dear Friends, please note that the only source of funding for your blog are your purchases at the shop section. I invite you to have a look at some nice stockings and pantyhose. Please keep that in mind.*
I am excited because this is actually the first time I am doing an interview for another blog. Andreas Lucius, the owner of Legwear Fashion for Men, is a real trend setter when it comes to wearing tights as a fashion garment.
Some sample questions from the discussion that I answered:
Why do I love hosiery?
What do I think of men who wear it?
Would I date someone who wears it?
What style would work nicely with hosiery for a man?
I saw these curious designs on pantyhose and I just had to share it with you! I found it on a forum, so I am really not sure where they are from. But isn’t this a great way to celebrate both weather and hosiery?
Calling all guys who have thought about trying on women’s pantyhose but haven’t gotten the nerve! (Come on out, fellas, I know you’re in there!)
Many of you are attracted to the look and feel of nylon pantyhose on a woman’s legs, and have wondered what it would feel like on your own legs.
Perhaps your attraction to pantyhose is strong enough to be classified as a fetish… if that is the case, go ahead and indulge yourself – many male fans of Fantasy Stockings have told me the sensation they get from wearing and walking around in women’s pantyhose is “sheer” ecstasy! Words like, “sensual” “ecstatic” “undulation” “electric” roll off their lips…
Okay, so what is holding you back? Need another reason to open up a pack and give it a try? Health benefits! Traditionally, wearing support hose has been for “women only”, although the health benefits of slipping into a pair cut across gender lines.
Steve Newman is spokesman for “ActivSkin Men’s Legwear”, a product line of G. Lieberman & Son’s of Granville Ohio, USA. Family owned for four generations, Lieberman & Sons (GLS Hosiery) has been discretely offering its hosiery to men since 1920. Steve was recently interviewed by Gail Hogan on Columbus Ohio’s WNBC-4 TV.
Steve told Gail, “… up to forty five percent of men experience vein insufficiencies in the legs and the medical industry has largely ignored that.”
Okay, so what is the concept? “… A lot of our products are support style hosiery, which compresses the legs, which compresses the veins, and helps the little valves in your veins pump the blood up out of your legs and return it to your heart”, says Steve.
What about the public mindset that legwear is for women only? “We at ActivSkin have been doing our part to publicize legwear as a men’s or unisex garment and as we do, more and more men are becoming comfortable wearing them, at least under long pants. I am probably the poster boy for men’s legwear, so I try to advertise it everywhere I go.” (Steve was wearing a pair of transparent hose under his khaki shorts for the TV interview.)
Steve finished by saying that in addition to helping blood circulation, the hosiery also creates muscle compression which increases stamina and reduces fatigue. ActivSkin products are designed for men’s body proportions, and they have a fly opening in the front.
ActiveSkin products aren’t available in retail outlets, but you can view the extensive catalog online at glieberman.com, and make purchases… they have a PayPal account.
A frequently asked question by potential buyers who are still sensitive about receiving what is essentially a pair of pantyhose in the mail: “HOW IS IT PACKAGED???”
This fun answer, from the website:
We know that if we packaged our legwear in pink envelopes with big bright red letters that said, “Here’s the pantyhose you ordered, Mister!” that wouldn’t get us a lot of happy customers or repeat business. So, we send our orders in plain envelopes that don’t advertise anything about the contents. Even though we’re proud of our products, we recognize that some people might be sensitive about others knowing what they wear, so we try to be as discreet as we can. For orders outside the USA we are required to declare the contents on a customs form, and it is usually identified simply as “clothing”.
So there you are, boys! Whatever your reasons for being reluctant to take the plunge and slip into a pair of pantyhose, there are ample reasons to put aside your hesitation and try what could become an important part of your evolving unisex wardrobe!
*Friends, the only funding for this blog is from the shop section. Please indulge your pantyhose obsession and show some support for my work! Your purchases make this blog possible.*
I recently read a statistic from UK that 75% of all hosiery sold are pantyhose. What does this mean?
I don’t know, but in my opinion it is natural that women will buy more pantyhose then leggings because pantyhose wears out faster. Most runs happen at the toe nails and leggings are footless, therefore longer lasting.
Thus, I find such hosiery statistics a little misleading. But yes, there is some truth to it that as a result people buy pantyhose more frequently than leggings.
Let’s say that my friends complain that they buy pantyhose all the time. But they never manage to have that problem with leggings because those tend to be made of thicker yarn and they are not damaged by the shoes or toe nails.
*Friends, the only funding for this blog is from the shop section. Please indulge your pantyhose obsession and show some support for my work! Your purchases make this blog possible.*
I told Melanie about my trip to Cuba and how I managed to wear Fogal Cuban heel pantyhose there. It was so much fun, I wanted to get something similar since Cuban heel is so rare to find these days. She told me about a style of pantyhose that is similar to the stockings used for the Great Gatsby movie with a fancy design on the heel.
Calling all guys who have thought about trying on women’s pantyhose but haven’t gotten the nerve! (Come on out, fellas, I know you’re in there!)
A frequently asked question by potential buyers who are still sensitive about receiving what is essentially a pair of pantyhose in the mail: “HOW IS IT PACKAGED???”
