Where do flight attendants buy their tights?

Satin Touch 20 pantyhose on the airplaneJust recently I returned from my trip to US and I wanted to write about two conversations I had with flight attendants on the way there and back about pantyhose. I was curious to hear whether why they choose not to wear compression hosiery even though it is fully covered by their work benefits and where they buy their regular ones.

On my way to JFK one of the flight attendants was very friendly to me and I asked her, out of professional interest, what hosiery she wears. She said that she actually buys her tights at the dollar store! Somehow whether she buys it for $2 or for $15 from the department store, she still ends up getting snags in them the first time she wears. Thus, she figured, why spend more.

When I asked about compression, she said that she has one pair that she got through the company. It helps her legs and she really should wear it, but it’s too much hassle. Compression hosiery needs to be put on wearing latex gloves and it has to be washed in a specific soap solution.

My suggestion to her was to buy a few more of those compression tights and alternate them, so she can wash them all at once. I also gave her my card and offered to give her some free Fiore hosiery to try out and review. There are moderately priced options out there that don’t have as high of a mark up as the ones at the department store.

On my flight back I asked another flight attendant about her tights and the story was almost the same. She buys her regular hosiery from Aldo shoes. Exactly like the lady before her, she also owns one pair of compression hosiery that she was specifically measured for. However, she lost weight and her compression tights no longer fit her properly.

For all the flights I wore pantyhose myself, it’s doesn’t look credible to ask someone a personal question, claiming you are from the hosiery industry, if you don’t look the part. On my flight to JFK I wore Wolford tights and on the way back out of Boston I wore a pair of thicker Taiwanese ones that were a gift from a friend. Fiore tights make up the majority of my personal collection, but I also like to try on different brands in order to be able to compare and give people good feedback in terms of benchmark brands.

Cuban Hotel and Airport Staff in Pantyhose

On my trip to Cuba I couldn’t help but notice how many maids and waitresses were wearing pantyhose! Of course, not every single one. Somehow in the hotel where I was staying pantyhose became optional and so did customer service in many instances (let’s just say we had a few issues at front desk).

cuban maid in cuba in pantyhose with flowers

I took a photo of these two lovely people on the morning of my departure. The maid was holding such beautiful flower arrangement that I just couldn’t resist and asked her for a photo.

cuban waitress in pantyhose cuba buffet hotel resort vacation

As some of you already know, I went on this trip with my parents. The waitress that served us each dinner was really sweet. We gave her some used clothing and my suitcase that I no longer needed (with all the poverty in that country they really appreciate any kind of used items), and in exchange she brought us some Cuban souvenirs. We really didn’t expect anything in return. She also brought photos of her family to show us.

I also saw the guards at the airport in pantyhose. They even had patterned pantyhose on! That was really nice to look at. I must admit, I was afraid to take photos there though. Who knows what their rules are, I don’t want to find out the hard way.

cuban airport staff in pantyhose in cuba

cuban airport staff in patterned beige pantyhose in cuba

Do you notice though how short the skirts are for the guards? I saw them even shorter! There was one guard at the airport in black pantyhose who had such a sexy walk, I wish I could film her, but I didn’t want to get in trouble because there was another guard right next to me.

And lastly, the tour guide was wearing pantyhose too! Here is a picture of my own leg sticking out in pantyhose and our guide standing in the background. She had a run in hers though, so I wonder whether she should consider carrying an extra pair around. It was really hot that day, but I don’t want to feel cold from the air conditioning, so I wear some kind of hosiery. I mean, I can always take it off if I get too hot.

cuban tour guide in pantyhose and short skirt

Indifferent service at San Francisco Wolford Boutique

Apathy – I feel that this is the best word to describe the attitudes of staff at Wolford in San Francisco.

I didn’t have much time in that city, but it was very important for me to see this Wolford boutique, partially because I am a blogger, but partially because this is my most exciting destination for shopping.

I walked in with my guy and at first I thought that they had another customer there already.  But when I saw that person moving mannequins, I realized that she is actually one of the staff.

Well, my confusion came from her outfit – she was wearing jeans and some kind of casual flat white shoes.  After she finished, she hopped behind the counter, thus hiding her bottom half and looking more like an employee.

The young lady who greeted me was wearing black textured fishnet pantyhose and a knee length skirt.  She was polite, but somehow I didn’t feel any enthusiasm.  Even though she answered my questions well, I could sense her lack of passion about the product.  The product knowledge was there, yet somehow this experience didn’t feel personal at all.  It felt as if this interaction was robotic and I couldn’t figure out how come it begun to bother me so much.

What could it be?  I didn’t know if my expectations are too high after being welcomed so nicely in their Toronto location by a manager who sincerely loved the product even before she got hired.  Could it be that these women are just there to work their shift, without actually having any interest in this kind of stuff outside of their work hours?

I don’t want to paint too bad of a picture here, the service wasn’t bad at all, just indifferent.  I dream about visiting all the Wolford boutiques around the world, but somehow I am not excited about returning to this one.

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My amazing visit to the Fogal store in Toronto

On Wednesday I got a chance to visit Toronto Fogal store with my pantyhose friend, David from Toronto.  He is that Canadian gentleman who sent me some Wolford pantyhose to try out.  Up to this point we only exchanged messages online, so I it was the first time that we got to see each other in person.  Both of us were excited to meet and check out Fogal.

As we walked in, we were greeted by a young lady named Melanie who was wearing fun tiger-print pantyhose.  She asked what we were interested in and pointed out that some of the summer collection items were on sale.  With her help I picked out to try 2 pairs – seamless low rise UNA pantyhose and backseam pantyhose with a Cuban heel called Belle Epoque.  I also tried a shiny sheer pair, but it wasn’t quite enough shine for my concept of “shiny”.

In total I tried on 3 pairs and I got Melanie’s and David’s opinions on how it looks and on what colour is best.  I think that for probably half of my visit I was spinning in front of the mirror and checking out the perfect fit.

 

The service was great!  Melanie answered all my questions with enthusiasm.  I learned a lot about the brand and I was especially amazed to see that they still have one style there that is 100% nylon.  Turns out that some ladies wanted to have the same pantyhose that they bought decades ago and fell in love with.  Melanie also gave me their fall catalog and a booklet with some history of the brand.  Turns out they’ve been around for 90 years!
I must admit that the service at Toronto location was much better than in Vancouver.  Even though they had only one person working there, she handled everything very well.  Melanie told me that she has a lot of Fogal hosiery at home and she buys multiple pairs of her favorite limited edition designs.  To me it is important to see that staff are in love with the product themselves.

 

It was a very nice visit and I walked out of there thrilled!  It was very nice of David to get me the perfect “Welcome Back to Toronto” gift – 3 pairs of Fogal pantyhose.  (Maybe some of you know that I used to live in Toronto for many years before I moved to Vancouver.)  I now have 2 pairs of Una and one pair with the Cuban heel.  Since then my hands were all over the package, but I didn’t open it just yet because I want it to be special.

 

Why is Cuban Heel so hard to find?

Such stockings with a Cuban Heel can be still purchased from several brands offered on StockingsHQ website.

Do you ever wonder the same thing, how come this practical and beautiful feature became almost obsolete?  Throughout my life I wore probably thousands pairs of pantyhose and stockings, but I only had one pair of pantyhose with a Cuban heel by Pierre Cardin.  I decided to ask StockingsHQ about the Cuban heel on Twitter.  To my surprise, I’ve got a very informative response.

Question:  Why do you think Cuban heel became so rare?  It increases durability.

Answer by StockingsHQ:  These machines are all now very old and very difficult to maintain, and production is a very painstaking process.  It is therefore very hard to make them at a reasonable cost for the mass market.  Hence all the big companies have stopped  production and the only machines still running are in the care of smaller specialist companies like Gio, Eleganti and Cervin.  Even then parts are hard to come by and it’s very hard to recruit the specialist staff required.  Thankfully, though, they do persist against all the odds and I’m grateful for that every day!!

www.stockingshq.com 

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Wolford: can men work at the boutique?

Wolford Boutique in Soho

Recently there was a post on Hosiery Advocate’s blog about him feeling that Wolford doesn’t wish to hire male staff.  Eugene, the Hosiery Advocate, even went as far as writing them a letter.

I was in the area, so I walked in and asked about that.  The lady working there told me that they have no problem with hiring men.  However, she did mention that some female customers would rather have another female assist them with the change room.

It seems to me that Wolford may lose sales if their customers are not comfortable wtih the sales staff.  At least when I try something on I ask the sales girl to come over and look so I can be confident that this is the proper fit.   If it’s lingerie, for sure I’d prefer female staff to check the fit.

I used to know a guy in Toronto who brought in a line of Latvian lingerie.  He distributed it to stores, but he also had a retail location where I went with  my mom for shopping.  There was a change room, but he obviously didn’t offer “assistance” beyond the curtain.  I don’t know for what reason, but his business closed down eventually.

Have you ever seen men assisting women in lingerie stores with change rooms (ex. Victoria Secret, La Senza, and so on)?

What is your opinion on this?  Would it hurt Wolford’s sales if they would hire male staff to assist clients at the boutique?

I asked for some opinions and most people seemed to think along the same lines as Jenny from United States who agreed to share her response with us.

“I would definitely feel weird if a guy tried to help me make a purchase at a Wolford store or Victoria Secret. It would say to me that he has a fetish for hosiery or lingerie, and that’s not the kind of person I want standing a foot away from me while I pick out my undergarments. My guess is that most women would feel the same way, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

On the pantyhose forum there were also mentions about the fact that men and women react differently in the same situation when it comes to a sales person of an opposite gender.  Another man stated that he saw gay men working at lingerie stores and women didn’t mind, they just perceived them as one of the girls.

I even consulted two women at work about this matter.  One lady said that for sure she would prefer female staff since they have the same anatomy, but she made an exception – drag queens are OK!  Another young woman said that she doesn’t mind men at all because even her gynecologist is male, she knows what she likes and all she doesn’t require any assistance or assurance in the changeroom.

Let’s say, so far from my little research most of the time both genders would say that lingerie stores should continue to hire only women.  Is this discrimination or not?  I remember that one time a professor told me that equality is a concept that generates a lot of confusion and is often misunderstood.  Perhaps Wolford is also having that dilemma.

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Cuban chambermaids in hosiery despite the heat – Controversy

Every time I am in Cuba, I am surprised to see female hotel staff wear hosiery at all times despite the heat with closed toe shoes.  If I’d have that job, I probably wouldn’t be able to take it anymore and would go ahead and jump in the pool.

A model is posing in a maid outfit near the pool. Courtesy of WamInStyle team.

Just recently one of the women I know returned from Cuba and that was the first thing she mentioned to me, knowing about my hosiery obsession.

To my surprise Cuban staff wear hosiery, but not basic plain.  They all seemed to show off with a variety of patterned tights.  Not only that they wear it, they put effort to draw attention.

I also visited Dominican Republic and Mexico, but their staff go with bare legs.  Only Cuba seems to maintain such high dress code standard.

I can’t really say if I like the idea despire my love for hosiery.  To me clothes should not jeopardize one’s health.  At temperatures soaring close to 40 Celsius wearing synthetic fabrics may lead to skin irritation, fungus infection, and to additional female problems.

Once I was walking all stylish in the heat of the Middle East and the next day ended up with an excema-like rash on my skin.  Locals confirmed that this is what happens to them too if they don’t dress smartly in such heat.

Do you think that pantyhose should still be enforced in extreme heat?  I would probably suggest in summer months to wear fine fishnet stockings (no silicon lining) with a garter belt in order to both look stylish and not feel too hot.

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