sillysally Posted April 29, 2022 Share Posted April 29, 2022 Hi all,  The question of ballet tights is always a head scratching topic in our house....we buy a lot and have found that all tights are not equal 😞 As we need to stck up on pink & black footless I thought I'd check out the forum for help.  We normally buy Capezio but only when its on offer (special price), but at the moment I cant find any offers so I'm looking for an alternative. We have in the past bought Bloch (not our fave, snag too easy) and Move own branded tights (colour seems to fade to a grey very quickly) This brings me to my question.  Has anyone worn the brand Merlet?  Are they any good?  Thanks for your thoughts.   Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neverdancedjustamum Posted April 29, 2022 Share Posted April 29, 2022 (edited) Never tried Merlet but my DD is probably the fussiest person ever when it comes to tights.  I kid you not when I say that we must have tried pretty much every brand there is (apart from Merlet, ironically). Her absolute favourite is So Danca. The light pink is lovely and classical but we tend to buy the ballet pink because the colour lasts longer. It’s brighter and almost more salmon in colour straight out of the pack but once worn it’s not as bright and looks amazing with the So Danca SD16 split sole canvas shoes and takes ages to fade. None of her ballet pink So Dancas turned into that horrid greyish pink hue that a lot of tights do. The waistband is also super soft and remains that way. Amazingly comfortable and soft all over. Just our opinion and I’m sure others would have their own recommendations too.  (Post not sponsored by So Danca though that would be amazing given the number of pairs we go through.) Edited April 29, 2022 by Neverdancedjustamum 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurora3 Posted April 29, 2022 Share Posted April 29, 2022 I like the convertibles from Bloch because the division in the middle is invisible! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pixiewoo Posted April 30, 2022 Share Posted April 30, 2022 DD tends to wear the 60 denier convertible ballet tights or black footless tights from Silky. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dancing unicorn Posted April 30, 2022 Share Posted April 30, 2022 Sorry but dd will not entertain anything but capezio 🤣🤣 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Medora Posted April 30, 2022 Share Posted April 30, 2022 Silky from Amazon. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted April 30, 2022 Share Posted April 30, 2022 Another vote for Silky here. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeverTooOld Posted April 30, 2022 Share Posted April 30, 2022 Also another vote for Silky. They are much lower in price than other brands but we've found that they last just as long and are very comfy to wear. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legseleven Posted April 30, 2022 Share Posted April 30, 2022 Dancing unicorn - your post made me laugh, DD was just the same 😀 - they lasted amazingly and never took on that greyish tinge or indeed laddered. Plus they looked fabulous with the Capezio Juliets. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peanut68 Posted April 30, 2022 Share Posted April 30, 2022 Yet another Silky fan! They seem comfy, wash well, long lasting & are relatively cheap!! I price-check & bulk stock up via Amazon when prices good (often only around £5 a pair. For ballet DD likes the thicker (I think 70 Dernier called the Intermediate?) And the 60 dernier Black footless for contemporary etc.  Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted May 1, 2022 Share Posted May 1, 2022 I've added another tag "tights" and that brings up previous threads where there may still be useful information. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sillysally Posted May 4, 2022 Author Share Posted May 4, 2022 On 01/05/2022 at 00:36, Peanut68 said: Yet another Silky fan! They seem comfy, wash well, long lasting & are relatively cheap!! I price-check & bulk stock up via Amazon when prices good (often only around £5 a pair. For ballet DD likes the thicker (I think 70 Dernier called the Intermediate?) And the 60 dernier Black footless for contemporary etc.    Thanks all. I saw silky on amazon but really was unsure.....I'm going to buy some, maybe just 2 pairs s she can see if they work for her. Whats the sizing like??  In general I find the price of ballet tights CRAZY!!!  But then I think the the price of ribbons and elastics for pointe shoes is too 🤣 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peanut68 Posted May 4, 2022 Share Posted May 4, 2022 1 hour ago, sillysally said:   Thanks all. I saw silky on amazon but really was unsure.....I'm going to buy some, maybe just 2 pairs s she can see if they work for her. Whats the sizing like??  In general I find the price of ballet tights CRAZY!!!  But then I think the the price of ribbons and elastics for pointe shoes is too 🤣 My DD was sceptical as not a known dancewear brand like Capezio/Gaynor Mindon etc…. I think at vocational school ballet tight snobbery was rife!! Since I first convinced her to try I note their packaging has become more serious ballet looking & also that increasingly they are stocked in quality dancewear shops - incl, those supplying vocational uniform. I do note that these tend to be £2 or even more per pair than I’ve been paying on Amazon (& trust me, I would rather support the independent shop but when buying maybe 30 pairs in a year the savings add up!) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jewel Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 It's strange how different people find things isn't it. I stopped buying Silky tights for dd as they didn't last 5 minutes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neverdancedjustamum Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 (edited) 17 minutes ago, Jewel said: It's strange how different people find things isn't it. I stopped buying Silky tights for dd as they didn't last 5 minutes Same here. They were the very first tights I got for DD as it was the only brand available from the school shop. I found they turned a bit grey after only a few washes. Certainly for the convertible style, I didn’t find them much cheaper than other brands either (Amazon or otherwise). I remember buying about 5-6 different brands of tights and having DD use them same number of times so they were washed more or less the same number of times too. I then lined them all up to check for colour, shrinkage, bobbling and general softness.  Silky was definitely greyest, Bloch was thinnest and most worn looking, Capezio showed a bit of shrinkage. I clearly had too much time in my hands to be doing such experiments! What did pain me was the price increase from child sizes to adult sizes - ouch!  Just to say that as a point of reference, when we tried half a dozen brands at the same time, they were just washed in the washing machine with the rest of our clothes (with the pinks/purples/brown/reds/nudes). I’ve never handwashed or scrubbed tights. Edited May 5, 2022 by Neverdancedjustamum 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peanut68 Posted May 5, 2022 Share Posted May 5, 2022 I’ve done a taste challenge to compare teabags but never a Ballet toght one 🤣 Good idea.... re: Silky tights.... avoid the Essential range as those are rather thin (never actually tried fir that reason) Some dance shops only stock those... there are then 2 other ones; each a higher dermier. It’s the 70 dernier the DD likes (in ‘theatrical pink’) as she likes the slightly more block colour & the ‘compression’ feel.... I’ve used them also & agree! They match the shoes she wears well too. I wash in a net bag with light colours at max 30degree or even just cold using a non-bio for silk & wool fabrics liquid wash. Colour/shape lasts really well.... I send DD with colour catcher sheets to add to every wash as suspect she binge them in with dark leotards...! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Medora Posted May 6, 2022 Share Posted May 6, 2022 Yes, avoid the ‘essential’ Silky rights. They grey and are not as comfortable.  DD is a size 12 in Degas and we buy size 11-13 Silky tights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sillysally Posted May 7, 2022 Author Share Posted May 7, 2022 thanks all..... the purchase of so many tights in a year means that checking out the alternatives is worthwhile.  similarly I know many pointe shoes are kept as back up but my DD must unpick ribbons/elastics off some of the "dead" shoes to reuse them... 😆   Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dancing unicorn Posted May 7, 2022 Share Posted May 7, 2022 Dd will only wear black stirrup silky over her leo for contemp 💗 🤣 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HopelessMummy Posted May 8, 2022 Share Posted May 8, 2022 Try porselli dancewear online. Their tights are affordable and I think the capezio ones are great, silky ones are adequate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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