'Mantihose' Makes Men in Tights a Cruel Reality. Just Think, Now You Can Hand Wash Your Delicates Together

Posted Sep 24th 2009 at 4:30PM by Erin Donnelly (Subscribe to Erin Donnelly's posts)

Filed under: Fashion, News, Stylish Living

Unconditional Mantihose Man Leggings at Selfridges

"Mantihose" claim another victim. Photo: Selfridges

Pop quiz, hotshot.

What's the bigger crime: creating leggings for men, calling said leggings "mantihose," or having the gall to charge £70 (about $112) for them?

With its exclusive line of Mantihose from Unconditional, British department store Selfridges has scored a fashion violation hat trick.

Set to debut later this week, the one-size-fits-all men's hosiery collection features black, charcoal and beige 120-denier woven tights produced in cotton and Lycra and designed to keep the fellas nice and toasty on those chilly fall nights.

Because, you know, they probably won't have girlfriends to keep them warm once they get a load of the man tights.

Citing a demand for male hosiery in recent years, a statement from Selfridges explains that the tights can be worn "to create a leaner silhouette under winter's slim male suiting or to parade under this season's cropped or rolled-up trousers."

Um, yeah.

"This winter the city's most stylish men will have a secret weapon hidden in their trousers," said David Walker-Smith, Selfridges' Director of Menswear and Beauty, in a company press release, cruelly playing with our emotions. "The 'mantihose' is extremely versatile and we expect men to be wearing them not only as a way to give legs an extra boost of warmth on the chilliest nights, but as a true style statement."

And because once you go "mantihose" there's really no turning back, the store will also be selling a mini kilt for men by Unconditional. What better way to show off those gams?

That's it. We are so hibernating this winter. Wake us up when it's over.

Thought these leggings were bad? Check out these tights for dudes.

Tags: david walker-smith, emancipation, kilt, leggings for men, mantihose, mantyhose, mens fashion, Mens tights, MensTights, menswear, selfridges, tights for men, TightsForMen, unconditonal

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

patfl38 9-24-2009 @ 6:18PM

No matter how much I worked out I couldn't get the ripped muscle look I wanted. I kept asking the guys in the gym what they were doing that I wasn't until one guy told me about a men's strength diet product ( http://LeanMuscles.notlong.com ) that did the trick for him. After a few weeks of using it I finally got the lean look that I had been working on for so long.

steven.newman 9-30-2009 @ 12:03AM

You see, the problem is how this whole 'mantyhose' thing is getting twisted up in people's minds because they visualize one thing, when most of the time it's something much different. Since the big news frenzy broke last week about the new tights that Selfridges is carrying, virtually all media coverage has featured either 1). photos from e-MANcipate.net of snakeskin tights that have nothing whatsoever to do with these new tights, or 2). pictures of a hapless reporter wandering the streets wearing a mini-kilt, of all things, over top of what can only really be referred to as leggings--not pantyhose or tights.

Because of all that, people are going around with the notion of a vaguely effeminate guy twirling around in a miniskirt with leggings. It's a wonder they even got any positive responses to an outfit like that.

What is NOT being reported is what the vast majority of men who wear some sort of legwear are actually doing out there in the hinterland. As I've tried to document in my blog, The Nylon Gene (nylongene.com), there's a large number of otherwise ordinary men who have been wearing either sheer or opaque tights under their pants for many years.

They're not doing it because they're cross dressers. It may be because the need the leg support for achy, tired muscles and varicose veins, it could be a base layer for added warmth-without-bulk, or for athletic benefits for runners and cyclists, et al. Most guys in this category, if they are wearing shorts, would not even be noticed for wearing legwear because most times it doesn't even show. It's not worn so much as a fashion statement, but because it solves some problem they have.

I hope we can start seeing some more balanced media coverage of this emerging and growing trend in the near future.

dffdfgrfg4eregf 11-18-2009 @ 4:01PM

dffdfgrfg4eregf 11-18-2009 @ 4:02PM

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