Pretty Polly, Aristoc and Elbeo are gone: inside the quiet liquidation of Britain's best-known tights
On 14 May 2026 the company behind Pretty Polly, Aristoc and Elbeo tights went into liquidation, along with Gossard and Berlei. What the official filings show, and a century of British hosiery.
There is nothing left to buy on the Pretty Polly website. Where the shop used to be, there is a short notice: "Pretty Polly has officially ceased trading and entered liquidation effective 14th May 2026." More than five months later, we could not find a single story about it in the British trade press we checked. So we went to the official filings to piece it together: which companies went into liquidation, what the numbers look like, and what is left in the shops.
What happened on 14 May
The company behind Pretty Polly tights is Embody (Brands) Limited, based in Nottingham. On 14 May 2026, at a general meeting held on Teams, its members resolved "That the Company be wound up voluntarily." Companies House lists it as a creditors' voluntary liquidation. The shareholders start this procedure when a business can no longer pay its debts, and it is then run for the creditors. No court ordered it.
The joint liquidators are Andrew J Cordon and James O Everist of CFS Restructuring LLP in Nottingham, appointed the same day. Two notices in The London Gazette on 21 May confirm it. The appointment notice describes the company's business as "provision of lingerie products". The notice on the brand's website asks for "all inquiries regarding outstanding accounts, claims, or company assets" to go to the liquidators.
Not just Pretty Polly: Aristoc, Elbeo, Gossard and Berlei
Embody (Brands) sold more than Pretty Polly. In August the liquidators filed a notice disclaiming the company's interest in a long stock list. Its brand column reads Pretty Polly, Aristoc, Elbeo and House of Holland by Pretty Polly. The list runs from Pretty Polly 60 denier 3D tights to Aristoc 10 denier Ultra Shine and Elbeo Sheer Magic, and even department store display units. UK retailer Tights Tights Tights reported on 4 July that the three legwear brands "have entered into liquidation".
Aristoc Ascot nylon stockings in their original box, 1950s. Aristoc was sold by the same company as Pretty Polly. Photo: Museum Rotterdam, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
On the same day and with the same liquidators, Gossard Limited and Berlei (Europe) Limited also went into creditors' voluntary liquidation. These are the companies behind two long-standing bra and lingerie names. Companies House lists the same controlling shareholder for all three companies, with more than 75% of the shares: Kadima Holdings, a Nottingham holding company.
The numbers
Alongside the resolution, director Ian William Morgan signed the statement of affairs, the company's assets and liabilities as at 14 May. The stock had a book value of £947,257, but the estimate of what it will fetch is £35,300. Altogether the company might raise about £230,000. HMRC alone has a preferential claim of £252,583. Then come 47 trade creditors owed £634,058, plus money owed to staff. Unsecured creditors are down for "0.00", and the total shortfall is £1,025,217.
The filings do not say who owns the Pretty Polly trade mark today, and none of the sources we read does either. We found no sale or licence. The only assets listed are stock, debts owed to the company and cash.
A century of legs
The story begins "just after the First World War", as the Nottingham Post put it for the centenary in 2019. Two manufacturing technicians, Harry Hibbert and Oswald Buckland, set up a hosiery business in Nottinghamshire with "10 people and two machines". The name came in 1926, when they took over another company in lieu of an unpaid debt. It was named after a famous racehorse of the day, not after the parrot that later appeared in the adverts.
Pretty Polly, the racehorse behind the name, painted by George Paice in 1906. Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
According to the same piece, Pretty Polly introduced the non-run seam-free stocking in 1959, hold-ups in 1967 (shown on Tomorrow's World) and one-piece seamless tights in 1968. In 1978 came tights with a control top and a support leg. Eva Herzigova, Laura Bailey, Sara Cox and Rachel Stevens all fronted its campaigns.
In 1996, the Nottingham Post recalls, the "Long Legs" poster was flown over London and made the 10 o'clock news. In 2009 designer Henry Holland launched a tights line for Pretty Polly at Selfridges. House of Holland by Pretty Polly was still on the stock list in 2026.
Then the factories went. In April 2005 the BBC reported that the Sutton-in-Ashfield plant, "formerly known as Pretty Polly", would close with around 300 jobs lost, and production moved to Belper in Derbyshire. In May 2016 Courtaulds, the Belper manufacturer that made Pretty Polly tights, went into administration. Knitting Industry reported that 350 of its 380 staff would lose their jobs, with the collapse of BHS among the causes. Embody (Brands) Limited was incorporated two days later, on 27 May 2016.
The Courtaulds plant in Belper, Derbyshire, in 2017. Photo: Chris Allen, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.
What it means if you wear them
First, the stock is running out. Tights Tights Tights says "production has stopped" and that it is selling the Pretty Polly, Aristoc and Elbeo it has left "while stocks last". If you have a favourite style, look for it now at specialist retailers and check the size and shade on the packet. No new deliveries are coming.
To replace it, start from the style, not the brand. Note the denier, the finish (matte or shiny), the brief and the toe, then look for the same kind of tights from a brand that still makes them. We have told the stories of long-running European hosiery houses Wolford, Falke and Fogal. This is not the only shake-up this year either: in February the rip-resistant tights brand Sheertex was sold after years of losses.
The parrot has stayed on the old shop displays. The tights are now down to the last packets in the shops.
Sources and photos
The facts on the liquidation come from Companies House (the resolution, the statement of affairs and the notice of disclaimer), notices in The London Gazette and the notice on the Pretty Polly website, read in the Internet Archive copy of 13 July 2026. The history comes from the Nottingham Post (2019), the BBC (2005) and Knitting Industry (2016). The opening photo shows an old Pretty Polly display with the parrot, photographed in a shop in 2009 (Sarah, Flickr, CC BY 2.0). The historical photos are embedded from Getty Images. All links are in the references below.
