A boom in the Irish tights market began in December 2025, when Lainey Whelan entered the scene with her brand T-Lainey, showcasing occasional Irish-inspired printed designs that have since sold out at various launches and are currently in CMAT’s tour wardrobe.
Speaking with RSVP, Lainey talks about navigating through her arts degree, how she makes her tights sustainably, and if she considers herself a fashion designer.
So why tights?
“I suppose when I was a kid, I always loved tights, I didn’t do my Leaving Cert because of COVID so when I went to college in 2020 and every one or two days I’d be in college, I’d want a really cool outfit and I would get tights from the party shop, something I could afford really cheaply, but it would change the whole outfit.
“I’ve always loved bright, stripey tights. I think even when I was a kid, I dressed myself in stripey tights, do you know? I think this just naturally went really well because I did print in NCAD, so it’s literally the next thing. It’s literally printed on tights. I hate the word ‘wearable art’, but it is for me. I also think what I said before: they’re quite affordable, can change a whole outfit, and aren’t something you really have to commit to. But yeah, that’s why tights. And they’re fun.”
Do you have any kind of tips for people who are kind of hesitant about buying them, thinking, ‘No, I’ll rip them straight away.’
“I think because we’re so used to having s* quality tights. Do you know what I mean? I was kind of surprising myself by the amount of times I’m wearing the same pair, and I get them from Italy, they are really good.
“And that’s the first thing people say to me: ‘My god, they’re actually really good quality,’ without feeling claustrophobic or sweaty or too thick. Girls with really long nails always tell me they never rip them.
“So, I suppose I also don’t want them to be something that people are too scared to wear, because if you’re going to buy something, you should wear it a lot. I think I’ve gotten pretty lucky with where I get them from. I wouldn’t be too scared.
You get them from Italy. How does that work?
“I have a supplier. It’s been really difficult to find a good quality supplier. They are pretty expensive. I buy the colours I need from them, then print them here. So it’s not like I go, ‘okay, I need all of these colours’. Whatever they have, I can obviously buy. So, it means things are done in a more sustainable way, because I’m not producing things just because they have them, and I buy from them when they have enough stock, if that makes sense.
“It’s a bit tricky at the moment, figuring out the supplier because I don’t know when they’ll have a certain colour of those tights in. So that just means I won’t be able to make that colour unless I find another supplier. They’re really good for the moment.
So you did the Nine Crows Vintage Shop pop-up, and CMAT’s wearing them. How does that feel? She’s wearing them all the time now.
“So I started doing tights in December, and I was still working my job because I was an art teacher for eight years throughout college and stuff like that. I remember I was going to see CMAT in the middle of December, and I was like, ‘My god, I’d love for her to wear my tights one day.’ And now I actually can’t believe it, because I only just started in December, and now I do it full time and seeing her in them, I kind of feel like I’ve peaked, like that’s who I wanted to wear my tights.
“I adore her so much, and I only had a day to make eight pairs for her all custom, and she’s still wearing them, which is wild. I suppose that shows she’s actually up on stage putting on a big show, and she’s rewearing them.
“It is just surreal to see her in them; she’s one of my favourite artists as well.”
You only started in December, and where it is now…did you kind of see that coming?
“No, not at all. I was working as an art teacher, I was doing that three days a week and then I was in the studio trying to do my own art and the work I made before was quite dark and for my degree show, was all about digital afterlife, it was really like I was finding myself in kind of a bad place with my own work, I hate saying that but just feeling a bit low with it and then I was like, I want to do something really fun and I’m really glad to be doing something super fun.
“I really just love doing it now. I thought I might sell a few pairs or stock it in a one shop or something, but I didn’t expect this at all. It’s crazy.
“I’ve literally gained 10,000 followers since December. That’s really surreal to think about.
“People are so kind, I don’t know, it feels very strange in a lovely way, and I’m super grateful that I can do this full-time. I am living like my dream, I suppose, so without sounding cheesy, but I’m super grateful, like it feels wild. Yeah.”
What is your typical shopping day in the city like, or are there any shops if you’re looking for something new in your wardrobe
“Actually, talking about Nine Crows, I’ve always gone to that shop, and when I was a teenager, I would save up money, and I would go to Nine Crows and go and take pictures in their shop, and they’ve been amazing to me anyway, but genuinely that would be the shop that I would go to and obviously all the vintage shops and stuff like that.
“Thirty five vintage, that’s a really nice one, that’s kind of like, typically, honestly, where I would have gone or do go at the moment.
“I don’t know with the Nine Crows thing; that was also surreal. They’ve been so supportive, and just the fact that it was literally like me as a teenager going into that shop and then me having my work, so I was fangirling really hard.
“Like we did that, I was still making all the tights and stuff, and then we did it on Monday, and the pop-up was on, I think, Friday. It just came together. Alex Morgan directed it, and we kind of did it together. She’s the one who works at Nine Crows. She’s also someone I’ve been following since I was a teenager, and she’s probably the one influencer I would have been like, ‘My god, I love her style and stuff.’
“Everyone even came in the rain and the storm that day. It was kind of surreal. I didn’t think people would go. It started at 6:00 pm, and I remember telling people not to come till 7:00 pm because people won’t really come. There was a queue out the door before we opened, and it felt really weird to see people queuing up for my stuff. So yeah, I feel like that’s like a core memory for sure.
“People, like their boyfriends, were coming in and asking if I had these sizes. I actually felt like I needed a minute. I was not expecting any of this stuff to happen.”
Is there anything you think is a fashion fad at the moment, or are there any trends that you’re kind of loving?
“I know it’s a very common answer, but I really love wearing big balloon trousers. I’m literally wearing them now.
“I was out with my friends last night, and everyone arrived in a different type of balloon trousers.
Polka dots and stripes, and stuff like that. They’re massive at the moment.
“I’m restocking on Friday. I’m actually not restocking my button ones just because I try my best not to make stuff that I think people will like, because that’s actually the stuff that doesn’t sell for me. The polka dot button ones have sold really well, but I don’t know. I think polka dots never go out of style.
“If people are going to spend money, I try to give something that’s a bit different. So I’m not going to release those on Friday, which I feel like I’m going to get hate about, but it’s fine.
I get a lot of comments and messages asking me to make the Claddagh ones again, and I adore the Claddagh, but I just don’t want to do it. I think if I stick to something too long, then it just gets boring for me. I get bored with things so easily. So this is the perfect medium for me, there are so many things I can do with it.
“I’m constantly thinking of new ideas. I think in a world in tights now. I constantly think, ‘that on a pair of tights would be great’. There are more exciting things than polka dots for me at the moment. Even though I love polka dots, I’m literally wearing them all the time as well.”
That’s so interesting. When I was talking to Oran Aurelio last week, he saw a sign on Dame Street and thought that it would look good on a scarf, and I just thought, ‘How do you think like that?’
“My notes app on my phone…it’s so bad. It’s just tights. I literally would have written down ‘coddle dish tights,’ thinking, ‘come on now, I can’t.’ I’m surrounded by tights at the moment.”
If it wasn’t tights, what do you think you’d be designing? But also, do you even think you’d be in this position right now if it wasn’t for tights? Do you think you could see yourself doing t-shirts, hoodies, or anything like that?
“I think maybe I wouldn’t be getting on so well if I had done everything, I think then it kind of dilutes it a bit. So for the moment I am just going to keep to tights, and I don’t know if I would have gone this way in a fashionable designer way if there weren’t tights. I don’t know. I don’t think of myself as a fashion designer.”
“I think I am a printmaker as well. I think it’s a kind of perfect middle ground. I don’t know what I’d be making if I weren’t making tights.”
You’re the second person to say you don’t consider yourself a fashion designer.
“Yeah, because I always said I never wanted to be an artist sitting in a studio alone, but I always either wanted to be working with people or something similar. I never wanted to be this one thing. I don’t think I’m like a ‘fashion girly.’ I really think my tights are for the girls in Dublin going for a pint, and that’s perfect for me.
“That’s still fashion, obviously, but I think it’s like…I don’t know, I wouldn’t say I’m also struggling to figure out what I would call an ‘independent designer.’ I don’t really know what I should be calling myself, but it’s something in between.”
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