Anything Goes in Wolford Hose

T his pantyhose yarn starts in Austria, where textile businessman James Casty stumbled upon a brand that seemed to have a life of its own. They were Wolford hose, a virtual secret here but famous in Europe for never wearing out, something that can’t be said for their American cousins.

In 1991, he brought some back to the United States and opened Wolford Boutiques in five cities, including Costa Mesa. Now the stores are selling 100,000 pairs of pantyhose a year at a whopping $35 to $40 each (most pantyhose cost about $5).

Donna Collett is the manager of the Wolford Boutique in South Coast Plaza, which sells hosiery and bodywear.

This is another in a series of first-person columns that allow people connected to the fashion industry to talk about their encounters.

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Women wear a pair of regular pantyhose an average of 1.2 times. We have gained recognition because our opaque pantyhose can be worn 40 to 50 times if treated the right way. Our sheer hosiery is more fragile, but it will still last 15 to 18 times.

A woman I work with bought a pair of Wolford velvet deluxe pantyhose in September, 1992, and she’s still wearing them. That doesn’t mean that every woman would want to wear them that many times.

The reason it’s so comfortable is that it’s knitted on a machine similar to a sweater. Each leg is knitted separately, so our hosiery has no rings to it and doesn’t bag. All are soaked in lanolin also to give it a soft hand.

For a better fit, Wolford makes the back seam longer than the front. Most women are bigger in the back than the front and need more there, and when sitting, they need even more in the back. All of our seams and waistbands are finished by hand.

Our boutique carries a sample of every Wolford product: 65 styles of leg wear and 35 styles of bodywear. Each season there are new colors and styles.

Our signature style is opaque deluxe with a seam up the back.

We carry sheers, opaques, novelty hose and stay-ups (which are thigh-highs that are silicon-backed; they really stay up).

We also have control-top pantyhose. The American market wants control tops.

The novelty ones range from fishnets to metallic to a combination of fabrics threaded together. And for spring, there are many color palettes. Besides the neutrals, we have earth tones and bright colors like pistachio, mandarin and azure.