With an eye-wateringly artistic and beautiful debut campaign, Heist Studios (who make womens black fashion tights – get it?) are having a shoot-out with women’s lingerie stereotypes by presenting themselves using imaginative explorations of the female form.
The campaign for the Heist tights debut collection is shot by London photographer and wife of the founder, Edina van der Wyck. Fabulously, the brand lives in an old Spitfire factory in London – from the battle of London to the fight for great tights! The tights come only in black. And the packaging is dense, minimal, black, lidded box; plain except for the Heist studio mark. So what is it with Heist tights that makes them hip enough to rebel against hosiery conventions?
Well, Heist founder and CEO Edzard van der Wyck is a film producer who used to work with Chris Cunningham. Heist came into existence after van der Wyck couldn’t believe that there wasn’t a better quality of tights for his wife to buy. He also felt there could be a more intelligent articulation of feminine beauty than the lingerie space typically allows.
The first stop was a rethink to create hosiery that locate something the brand describes as ‘radical comfort’. Heist tights are designed in London and hand-sewn in Castel Goffredo, a small, medieval village in Italy. And having tried these out, I can say that these really are just about the most comfortable hosiery on two legs.
First, there are no seams – not up the front, not up the back, not on the waistband, nada! Second, Heist tights have an “Endless Loop Waistband” that comes in ‘standard’ or ‘high’ made from a seamless loop of soft material that is then hand-sewn onto the body of the tights so no digging in at the sides. And my favourite thing, Heist tights are luxuriously soft. It’s because they use yarn sourced from mills in Northern Italy that has around 10 times the spiral count (equivalent to thread count in sheets) of an average high-street pair.
The other interesting thing about Heist? They are all black! Not a nude or American Tan in sight! Heist tights go so far as to tell us that the tights are dyed Jet Black using Pantone 19-0303TPX. And as we know, all the most inspiring ladies only wear black tights. What else makes possible your short-shorts and micro-minis in all weathers after all?
