Wednesday 10 September 2008

Black Tights

As a teenager one area that was guaranteed to ensure a full and frank exchange of vitriol between my mother and I, was Black Tights. As a child there were no patterns, no beautiful jewel colours,just the most hideous array of beige, including American tan. I do not know if Americans were ever such a strange colour, but my tan clashed horribly with it, so from a very early age I wore black tights.
I preferred a solid black to the nasty 15 deniers on offer at that time. We so take for granted now that tights are 40, 60, 80 and the most beautiful of all 110 denier. It was not always so, until I tracked down a source of dance tights, I was reduced to wearing 2-3 pairs of cheap 15 deniers.
I suspect my mother bought me a pack of 3 and expected it to last, but let me remind you all that one only had to sneeze putting them on and a huge rent would appear, ladders would consistently steal up your leg up and so you could end up binning a pair a day. (my sister still does)
Now I do not remember who was in charge of redistributing the clean washing on a Sunday night but I never seemed to get back what I had put in, so commando style I would slip into my mothers bedroom and raid her tights draw. Needless to say words would be exchanged when the discovery was made, but it has always resonated with me the fact that for the cost of a few pairs of tights we could have been friends!
Seriously, I have bought Daisy and Kitty countless pairs and it is still not enough, Kitty wears hers over knee high black socks, whats that all about? but it suits her. She also wears a size large (she is tiny) which is good, as so does Daisy, so now they can share.
However no one thought to sort out the girl's tights draw over the summer, so last week Daisy in a rush grabbed a pair and went to school, after which she had to run for the train, and then walk a mile to and from somewhere with her friend. All the while the crotch of the tights kept falling down to her knees, so when she got home, she ripped them off and threw them away. Later when I checked the label they said Age 9-10!! There is nothing that raises my blood pressure more than tights that fall down, how that child kept her sanity I do not know. Do my daughters steal my tights? No, they don't have to, they know I will buy them some instead. Tights are now so much cheaper and far better made so that my sanity can remain intact.

2 comments:

materfamilias said...

Again, it's obvious what a good mom you are!
My sympathies to your daughter. I walked to school one day last year trying surreptitiously, continuously, to inch my tights back up over my hips. Especially since I walk a route that many of my students drive along, this was a horrid walk, and those tights, although run-less, went in the wastebasket as soon as I got home.

La Belette Rouge said...

I remember the scratchy tights of ballet--lo the many years ago. I have drawers filled with black tights. But, I always look for one of the four pairs of Donna Karan opaque tights that fit and feel better than all the rest. Think I should throw out the other and just keep Donna's.

I don't blame your daughter for their ire. Nothing irks like bad fitting tights. Mater is so right, you are a great mom and your girls are lucky to have a mom who understands the value of a tight.