Imagine a pair of tights with its gusset stretched beyond all recognition by the washing machine and you will have a fair idea of what the latest product from Austrian hosiery company Wolford looks like. Renowned for its innovation - remember Follow Me tights two years ago? - Wolford has now come up with StarckNaked, sprung from the ever-fertile imagination of French designer Philippe Starck. His work has traversed so many fields that an incursion into the world of fashion was inevitable. Starck came up with the look of hotels such as the Royalton and Paramount in New York and the Mondrian in Miami, created items of furniture and kitchen utensils and even designed a waste recycling plant outside Paris. In fact - other than tights - there is little which has escaped his attention until now.
An extraordinary item of clothing, StarckNaked made its debut last month in Japan and goes on sale worldwide in the autumn. A one-piece synthesis of a pair of tights extending into a long, narrow tube, it weighs 200 grams, comes in 80 denier opaque and has plenty of stretch thanks to 8 per cent elasthan/Lycra. Seamless - for maximum fluidity and comfort - it offers endless variations on three basic themes: skirt; tube dress; and strap dress.
Wolford describes StarckNaked as "today's answer to the little black dress, emblematic of simplicity and elegance". It is certainly versatile, offering three options as a skirt - long; to the knee; or mini - which may sit on the hips or around the waist. Similarly, various lengths are possible when StarckNaked is worn as a tube or as a dress; for the latter, fine vertical straps in braided cord with clips on each end are provided.
An amazingly obvious idea - one which it seems extraordinary no one ever considered before - StarckNaked will be available from September exclusively at Brown Thomas Dublin and Cork in sizes small to large and four different colours. The price is to be £195 - much, much more than the usual pair of tights, though not too expensive for a garment offering so many possibilities. Two drawbacks spring to mind. Any snags will be costly and secondly, it would be wise not to find yourself caught short when dressed in StarckNaked - getting out of it in a hurry could pose quite a challenge.
The price is to be £195 - much, much more than the usual pair of tights, though not too expensive for a garment offering so many possibilities