In their own words: 'We get hold of all the major brands of legwear, try them out and review them for you.'
Hosiery For Men recently interviewed the team behind Legslavish and we are pleased to publish this feature.
Can you tell Hosiery for Men readers about Legslavish? When did you get started and what are you aiming to do?
Legslavish came about out of a conversation in a pub between some friends who remarked on the tights one of the girls was wearing. She mentioned it was very difficult for girls to buy tights as it’s difficult to know what they’re like until you actually buy them and try them on, and there was nowhere to go to get reviews of tights or other hosiery.
We decided to fill the void and provide the world’s first visual hosiery review service. One of the main reasons was that the girls thought it would be a great way to get lots of free products! That was in late 2011. Our first video went up in early 2012 and now we have well over 200 reviews online with many more to come.
How have hosiery retailers and manufacturers supported you so far? Have you developed any positive partnerships?
Yes. We have great relationships especially with some of the smaller retailers in the UK, and recently some manufacturers have sent us products to review too. We haven’t partnered solely with any single retailer or manufacturer because our aim is to give unbiased, honest opinions of all products out there. And where we haven’t liked a product, or thought it was poor quality or poor value for money, we have said so. This maintains our honesty and credibility with consumers.
When Legslavish reviewers trial tights, are they working to any review guidelines or are the opinions of reviewers personal and subjective?
We have a general presentation format for the girls to follow, but their opinions and views are their own. How they style the products is entirely their choice so we could have the same product styled differently by two girls and they could each have their own different personal opinion about that product. That way the girls get their own unique following as people either agree or disagree with their personal views.
Which brands of tights have proved particularly popular with Legslavish reviewers? Surprisingly some of the cheaper, unbranded products, mainly from China, have proved very popular. They are fun and great value for money.
Other popular brands have been Falke, Wolford,and Bebaroque and Jonathan Aston, Gipsy and Fiore are more affordable brands.
Have you had any interest or feedback from men?
Very much so. Men make up a sizeable part of our audience with a large percentage being fashion bloggers, designers, or in the fashion industry in some way. Many of our most intuitive comments come from men.
There has been a huge amount of media coverage of 'mantyhose' (tights for men) in recent months. What are your thoughts about the greater visibility nowadays of men buying and wearing tights?
Hosiery was obviously a male garment when it was first invented hundreds of years ago. But as it became more of a women’s garment, it changed in the way it was designed and manufactured. Women’s hosiery is shaped differently and is often more delicate.
Men's tights as a product are great, and some good designers of hosiery produce separate products for men, so there is obviously a market. Although here at Legslavish we don’t know too much about men's tights – we have enough work keeping on top of trends within the women’s pantyhose markets!
Tights for men are also becoming a more visible fashion trend as recorded by the 'Men Wearing Tights With Shorts' tumblr page: http://men-wearing-tights.tumblr.com. What do you think about this trend?
We haven’t seen that blog, but we are aware of the fashion coming out of Italy of men wearing patterned tights with shorts. British men who decide to adopt this trend will have to be brave as we’re not sure Britain is quite ready for this yet!
The UK tends to follow the US in fashion rather than the rest of Europe. As with all fashion/style though, if it is done right it can look great, but if it is done badly it can look wrong! That’s true of style for either sex. If men do feel inexperienced in styling particularly patterns/colours they should watch our channel for tips even though we focus on women’s hosiery.
For men thinking about trying tights, what do you think are the advantages of wearing them?
If men want to wear hosiery then they should wear it confidently and with style. We come across many men who seem ashamed that they wear or want to wear hosiery – maybe that’s a society thing.
At Legslavish we whole-heartedly applaud men who are open and honest about their fashion and style when it includes hosiery and when they wear it with confidence and pride as we do.
Are there any particular brands or styles of tights that you would recommend to Hosiery For Men readers?
Emilio Cavallini does great women’s hosiery, so we would be certain that their men's tights would be of a similar quality.
What can we expect in the future at Legslavish?
Much of the same although we do plan to change our format slightly in the near future, just to keep things fresh. We also have ideas about going out onto the street and getting direct feedback from the public about products and styles. We’re also working hard on our social media profile too to make use of things like Twitter, Google+, Facebook etc.
Finally, we’re always on the look out for new reviewers to bring different viewpoints and styles to the channel, so expect some new faces (and legs!) – although at the moment we don’t plan to have any male reviewers as the range of male products is not quite big enough for us to review.
Many thanks to Legslavish for speaking to Hosiery For Men. I hope the Legslavish team will see that there are indeed a very wide range of men's tights now available, and many have been reviewed here. We wish Legslavish all the best, and look forward to future reviews as they are published. Do subscribe to the Legslavish YouTube channel to keep up to date with reviews as they appear.
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