In four years of collaboration with our colleague Manon, there has never been a lack of heavy news topics: the “yellow vests”, the coronavirus, the war in Ukraine… Strengthened by this confidence in the other’s ability to deal with problems of our time, and a little focused on her daily concerns, she took us between four eyes to order a subject dear to her heart: “You should talk about the fragility of tights, mine slip all the time”.
“His own”, or rather those of everyone. Because any pantyhose wearer will tell you: putting on stockings is like playing Russian roulette with seven balls in the barrel. In the ranking of the most fragile things in the world, we would easily place tights in the top 10, somewhere between Yoann Gourcuff’s ankle and a Vianney song. And if putting on tights without breaking them is a balancing act, succeeding in putting on the same one ten times is a statistical exception. A survey by the HOP (Stop Planned Obsolescence) association, released in 2018, thus indicated that in 40% of cases *, the tights did not exceed three uses. Only 28% of stockings exceeded six wears.
A problem far from only affecting the low end. Still according to this study, “none of the brands, whatever their price positioning, exceeds the sustainability score of 3 out of 5”. In 2013, 60 million consumers published a wear test carried out on 9 brands of tights, ranging from DIM to Well via H & M and Golden Lady: none passed the test with flying colors. Evil seems so deep, pushing 20 mins to lead the investigation.
Transparent and fragile tights
Florence Hampe, laboratory manager for the French Institute of Textiles and Clothing, tells us about the first target of our accusations, the material of which the tights are made. Stockings are usually made with polyamine and elastane. And no, these materials do not have the reputation of being particularly fragile. Where the stocking hurts (do you have it?) is more in the fineness of the threads, “particularly on transparent or semi-transparent tights, which require very fine threads”, informs us the expert. “But even with the more opaque pantyhose, the threads remain thin, which makes them crumbly”.
Transparent tights would represent 72% of the market in France, against 21% for opaque ones, estimated the HOP report. Thise preference for (semi-) transparent tights asks Sarah Banon, professor of fashion theory at the Institut Français de la Mode: “We can clearly see as in women’s clothing, design and aesthetics take precedence over comfort and practicality. This bonus to the visual aspect concerns the whole of women’s fashion: heels are not practical, tights are broken…. For men, fashion insists on the contrary on the robust aspect and the practicality of the garment. »
In another, older study**, Createst asked women to define pantyhose: “fragile” was the second most frequently mentioned word, mentioned by 65% of the sample (“feminine” came first, with 72% mentions). A fragility that can be seen in the frequency of consumption: 49% of respondents buy at least one new pair every two months.
Another explanation for the fragility of tights, their very concept: “These are clothes worn constantly in extension and fiddled with a lot when putting them on, which necessarily increases the risk”, supports Florence Hampe.
Lack of attention
The HOP association wonders about cases of planned obsolescence and deliberately weakened textiles to force repurchase. An accusation not necessarily founded, judge Sarah Banon: “The weakness of the tights is not necessarily a deliberate choice. It’s just that it’s not in the priority criteria at the time of purchase, which are more comfort and price. Resistance comes third, and does not go back enough to the manufacturers”. Understand: if it is not certain that they make their tights more fragile, they worry little about making them more solid: “Somehow, we got used to it, it is a daily purchase and if breaks, we buy one at the supermarket, between shower gel and dishwashing liquid”, continues Sarah Banon.
Majdouline Sbai, teacher-researcher at the University of Lille and author ofIs ethical fashion possible? (Rue Echiquier, 2018), hopes that things can change: “The fragility of tights is a good illustration of how we still think of clothes as something disposable”. Still according to the HOP survey, 104 million tights are thrown away each year in France (for 130 million sold). “At an average of 55 grams each, they represent an average of 7,315 tonnes of waste,” the report states.
Time to bang the table
For the teacher-researcher, we must therefore no longer accept this ecological and economic mess: the wearers of tights would spend on average a hundred euros per year, again according to the study: “It is time to see tights as a product of clothing, not consumption, and to ask for more resistant stockings”, proclaims Majdouline Sbai.
Especially since the revolution could quickly take place: “Tights are such a consumed and disposable product that users test several different brands and stockings. If at some point, a competitor offers really durable stockings, it won’t be long before you find out and make your mark. There is no brand identity on it,” says Sarah Banon. A brand that should start by knitting its pairs better, concludes Florence Hampe: “The way of knitting the yarns is often simplistic, for more productivity, which weakens them even more. » Tights are like a couple: to make them last longer, you have to give them more attention.