Swedish Stockings, A Sustainable Hosiery Brand for the Modern, Conscious Woman

We get to know the tights company developing a recycling program to collect hosiery from around the world and make new stockings out of old ones.

Each year, two billion pairs of tights are produced, worn a few times and then discarded. This is a fact that unfortunately contributes to the textile industry being recognised as the second most polluting industry in the world.

Trying to solve this issue is Swedish Stockings. They have found a smart way of avoiding making cheap non-biodegradable textiles which can take 30 to 40 years to decompose, in landfills across the globe. Founded by Linn Frisinger and Nadja Forseberg, the two womenpreneur’s have managed to avoid using Nylon yarn, which is currently used to produce more modern pantyhose, an environmentally harmful petroleum-based manufacturing process.

Linn Frisinger and Nadja Forseberg

Being Innovative, Sustainable and Conscious

Swedish Stockings are made from recycled yarn and natural fibres, and the process by which they are manufactured is sustainable: the factories use eco-friendly dyes, post-dyeing water treatments, and solar power. The company is also working on developing a recycling program to collect hosiery from around the world and grind it down into a filler material in glass fibre tanks.

“Stockings and pantyhose are made primarily from nylon, an unsustainable fabric created through a coal-, water-, and energy-heavy process.”

Producing beautiful pantyhose from recycled yarn, the innovative and environmentally conscious label has been gaining attention from magazines like Vogue. Stockings and pantyhose are made primarily from nylon, an unsustainable fabric created through a coal-, water-, and energy-heavy process.

Working with new high-tech fabrications, Frisinger and Forseberg have managed to separate nylon from elastane to make new stockings out of old ones. On this process, Forsberg told Vogue. “That has turned out to be the biggest challenges. Working with innovations and materials within a very traditional business, [you] hear a lot of ‘No, that’s impossible,’ but you have to be persistent. We’re constantly looking out for new, exciting materials, and that’s pure chemistry. We’re not chemists, but you learn fast!”

What sets them apart is that they have found a way of engaging in sustainable practices at their factories. This includes the use of environmentally friendly dye, post dying water treatment and the use of solar power for much of the energy needed in the manufacturing process.

ALSO READ: Buying into Sustainable Fashion To Dye For!

Modern and stylish, we are all about the fishnet style called Astrid Fishnet Knee High. “No one wants to buy something that doesn’t look nice just because it’s sustainable,” Forsberg’s co-founder Linn Frisinger told Vogue. “Look at what Tesla has done for electronic vehicles. The design was a big factor in creating the brand—everything [in the hosiery market] looked the same to us, and we felt it needed to be modernised regarding packaging, design, and quality. We wanted to reintroduce hosiery as a fashion item and accessory.”

Shop your sustainable hosiery

Founding Editor in Chief at FashNerd.com | editor@fashnerd.com | Website

Founding editor-in-chief of FashNerd.com, Muchaneta is currently one of the leading influencers writing about the merger of fashion with technology and wearable technology. She has also given talks at Premiere Vision, Munich Fabric Start and Pure London, to name a few. Besides working as a fashion innovation consultant for various fashion companies like LVMH Atelier, Muchaneta has also contributed to Vogue Business, is a senior contributor at The Interline and an associate lecturer at London College of Fashion, UAL.