#anna kompaniets

[annakompaniets]

I wore a vintage tartan suit to the private view of a totally amazing exhibition of an artist and friend Frank Paul at Enitharmon Studios Holborn. Check it out!

[annakompaniets]

Channelling a little Annie Hall in a suit by Pitlochry, scarf in hair by Fennec London, tights by Jonathan Aston, shoes by Next, blouse by Frank Usher for fab day of meetings and art. Excited about Fennec London's upcoming collab with gorgeous Italian actress Simona Mangiante!

[re-imaginingtights]

Read Anna’s tip on how to make old work tights glamorous here

Love Your Clothes part of WRAP

[re-imaginingtights]

Tights Ball Family just gotta helluva lot bigger ;) 27th February 2015 

[re-imaginingtights]

Donation of broken tights into New limited edition bins

Thank you for all the ongoing feedback in relation to our recycling tights bins' look. We have learnt a lot in the past year about what you desire - colour and texture being among the most important!

[re-imaginingtights]

Black is the Woman’s Uniform

I finally organised my tights. One hanger - pinks, second hanger - purples and blues, third hanger - patterned, fourth hanger - black patterned and lace, nude with patterns, nude, white and sparkly, fifth hanger boring black I have to wear to work. You all may know, I love colourful tights, so which hanger was the most full? The black one. It was some sort of fear that I don’t have enough that makes me do it, just buying and buying boring black tights. Besides from black tights, which I don’t actually wear that much, my other main obsession seems to be the pink and orange tights, photo here.

Today we sat near Central St. Martins, tights watching. In 5 minutes we spotted 22 tights all black, of these all were black, mainly opaque - only 4 were sheer. On the way to St. Pancras station we met 12 black opaque tights and 1 patterned black tights. The day was lovely so we sat outside St.Pancras and counted tights. In 1 hr we saw 70 black opaque, 20 black sheer, 3 black with holes, 2 black with patterns, 2 nude, 1 mustard yellow, 1 red, 1 purple, 1 wine red, 1 dark teal, 1 white. This means that out of 103 tights we’ve seen only 6 were an interesting colour. Black seems to be the new uniform for women - young and old, fashionable, frumpy, grungy, girly, goth…

Black, not nude is now the basic dress for women. Perhaps it means the neutral space, dramatically emphasizing the legs and slimming. Traditionally in the Western civilization white was a symbol of virginity, purity and innocence whilst  black was worn to funerals, symbolising death and darkness, the unknown, the void. Black was often worn by government officials, military, for religious purposes and the ones in power. Poor people would also wear black, but the dyes were cheap and the colour would normally be a shade of grey or brown. Coco Chanel in the 1920s and Christian Dior in 1950s among with other designers, popularised black as a chic and elegant colour for the modern woman. 

 Black is practical, sure, but nowadays when cleanliness is not a privilege of the upper class, as say in Victorian times, it is tough to understand this obsession with black for day wear  and especially for hosiery in this country . We hope that after reading this you will think about the reasons you have for wearing black tights and at least consider other options.With sunshine and spring in full swing who wouldn’t want to add some colourful tights into their wardrobe!

[dveaniiyura]

On racisim and stereotypes

I was accused of being racist today, probably for the first time, I said the lady in question was 'Nigerian' and 'trashy'. The gentleman accusing me of such racism was of Indian descent and not at all 'trashy' in my opinion. Was he right to find it offensive?

Here's a quick description of the woman -  I'll let you decide whether she was trashy or not. She wore a spandex tight cotton jersey micro mini dress in baby pink, no bra (so you could see her nipples pointing at passers-by); possibly no knickers either (or maybe they were hidden by layers of her fat), she was large - everywhere, with something of a dead rat of hair extensions on her head, big sunglasses, big bag and a nasty sneer of a pout. Here's a quick sketch:

We stereotype a lot. I'm always aware of the Russian blonde stereotype and therefore avoid wearing animal print, brown, cream, black leather, designer labels, tight jeans, black leather boots and other similar items at all cost. This stereotype is making me fit into another stereotype - that of an intellectual woman. All a Russian girl want for Christmas is fur and diamonds - is that really true?

We are a country of feminist, self-sufficient women, smart and sassy, so why, when a British man asks me where I'm from, does he get so cheeky when he finds out I'm Russian? One American farmer once said that he thought 'bears walked among people on the streets of Moscow' in a conversation to my acquaintance. Laugh or cry, the reality remains - there are stereotypes. Whilst we still have people who fit into them nothing will ever change. Perhaps the goal is not to stop being racist, either for the race to take note and to stop that stereotype existing. The same way a black man went from being a white man's slave to Obama the president. I personally, have friends of all nationalities, but never the stereotypes. 

Break free, I beg you human, become what you really are, not what you think you're supposed to be.

[re-imaginingtights]

Interview, Darren, designer, male

Darren, male, designer/stylist/blogger in his late 20s-30s

I have an amazing memory of tights! my grandma used to  to make ' human jars' out of them. She would put stones or fruit, wrap it in tights and then put them in a clear jam jar then stretch tights over the top. She would shake them in our faces and tell us they're real people. It was quite scary. I was thinking to make a jacket like that covered in these 'human' tights eyes, that would be terrifying.