Take a Look Inside the Pretty Legs Hosiery Factory

What is it like to visit a hosiery factory? We can reply: It’s amazing! Even more so if you’re lucky to have such nice hosts as Pretty Legs. A few of us visited Pretty Legs hosiery factory in the outskirts of Leicester to learn more about how hosiery is made. First stop, a room full of Pretty Legs’ latest designs. The paradise of hosiery addicts!

From paper to the leg: How are tights manufactured?

Pretty Legs are more than a brand of hosiery, as they also manufacture hosiery products for many other companies. However, they remained as a family business from their starting in 1959 until now. From the office staff to machine operators, everyone is related, like a big family.

Can you see the sewing needle on the top right corner of the picture above? These are some of the knitting machines from Pretty Legs. In a few seconds, these machines manufacture plain stockings in different deniers. After a quality test, the pieces are paired together in a circular machine and sewn together to create the actual tights, as you can see below. Looking at this machine workings feels like magic!

Now it’s the time for either dying in the chosen colour. In the case of patterned hosiery, it’s time for stamping the prints. Do you recognise the pattern from the Pretty Legs tartan tights? Those tights in the pictures look like paper, but (believe it or not) they actually were printed tights. This hosiery printer left us fascinated!

Now that all tights have been manufactured… time to stock them up!

Now time to stock them. In the picture below you can see an operator introducing knee high socks into U-shaped rods to double check they’re free from holes or scratches. This machine puts the socks together as if they had been ironed. Similar machines have a leg shape, instead, to create a foot shape in tights and stockings. The final process is packing and labelling the hosiery, now ready to shop.

Not only was it much fun for us, but we also could learn more about how Pretty Legs operates. Luckily, they allowed us to take many pictures to show you. Have you never tried Pretty Legs hosiery before? You can shop the Pretty Legs range here, including Pretty Legs’ children tights.