Swedish Stockings: the tights made from fishing nets

Around two billion pairs of tights, according to figures cited by FashionUnited, are worn once and thrown away every year. They are made of nylon, they come from oil, and in landfill they do not break down: they fragment into microplastics. That paradox, the most disposable item in a woman's wardrobe, is where Linn Frisinger and Nadja Forsberg started in Stockholm in 2013. Their label, Swedish Stockings, now makes tights from regenerated nylon, some of it recovered from fishing nets lost at sea, produces them in Italy's hosiery heartland of Castel Goffredo, and turns laddered pairs into design furniture.

Two friends and a documentary

The spark, FashionUnited reported, was The Light Bulb Conspiracy, the documentary about planned obsolescence: products engineered to wear out. Few objects embody the idea as neatly as a pair of sheer tights. On the brand's website the founders put it plainly: "Pantyhose are women's biggest consumable garment and also incredibly harmful to the environment."

Hence the label's description of itself as "the first sustainable hosiery brand worldwide", a claim that is the company's own and should be read as such. What is more interesting is how it actually works: where the yarn comes from, who knits it, and what happens to a pair once it breaks.

Made in Castel Goffredo

The answer to the second question is Italian. Swedish Stockings says its tights are produced in Castel Goffredo, near Mantua, by family-owned factories in the same area. According to the brand, the mills run on renewable energy, most generate between 35 and 80 per cent of their own power from solar panels, and the dye house cuts energy use by 20 per cent while reusing half its water. Its two ECONYL styles, the site states, are made by Calze Ileana S.p.A. Leftover yarns, the company adds, are turned into samples, paper and plastic are recycled, and its selected factories comply with the EU's REACH chemicals regulation.

Castel Goffredo is not just any postcode. It is the centre of Italy's hosiery district, which celebrated its centenary in 2025. The story begins in 1925 with the NO.E.MI. mill, which made cotton stockings. When it closed at the end of the 1950s, former employees opened their own small businesses, and the district multiplied from there. By the mid-1960s, according to the fashion encyclopaedia MAM-e, the area had become one of the drivers of the spread of tights in Italy.

Today, according to the Lombardy regional government, the district counts 92 companies, around 10,000 workers and combined turnover of roughly one billion euros, spread across sixteen municipalities in the province of Mantua. A Swedish label that chooses to manufacture here is buying, above all, a century of know-how.

What regenerated nylon actually means

It pays to be precise about materials, because "recycled" does not always mean the same thing. Swedish Stockings explains that polyamide, or nylon, is the main fibre in almost all its tights, and that many styles use yarns containing recycled material. That share varies between yarns and styles and is stated on each product page. The brand distinguishes between pre-consumer waste, material discarded before it reaches a customer, and post-consumer waste from items already used, with fishing nets as the example.

The nets come in through ECONYL, the regenerated nylon yarn made by the Italian company Aquafil. The process, as described by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, starts from Nylon 6 waste including fishing nets and carpets: the material is depolymerised, broken back down into its monomers, purified and repolymerised into a yarn with the same properties as oil-derived nylon. The nets must be thoroughly cleaned first.

Swedish Stockings uses ECONYL in two styles, both described as "knitted from ECONYL® 100% regenerated yarn, derived from salvaged fishing nets lost at sea": Melina, a semi-opaque 80 denier tight, and the lightweight Elvira Net. Aquafil is not named as a direct partner: the brand talks about the yarn, not the supplier.

Nylon is not the whole story, though. Almost every style contains elastane for stretch and recovery; for winter the brand uses merino wool and cashmere, plus viscose and lyocell made from wood pulp, and cotton, mostly in the gusset. A pair of tights, in other words, is nearly always a blend. That technical detail matters when it comes to the end of its life.

From laddered tights to tables

The other half of the project begins when a pair ladders. Through its Recycling Club, the brand accepts nylon tights of "any brand, any condition". Members get a free shipping label; everyone else posts them at their own expense to its warehouse in Sweden. In return there is 20 per cent off the next purchase. For now, the company notes, it can only receive tights from within the EU.

At first the collected tights were ground down and used as filler for industrial fibreglass tanks. In 2020 FashionUnited explained why, with some candour: fibre-to-fibre recycling, turning old tights back into new ones, was not yet possible. The breakthrough was design. Since 2020 the brand has worked with the Swedish architect and designer Gustaf Westman: the tights are ground, mixed with recycled glass fibre and formed into tables, each one different in colour and texture.

In June 2025 a series of tables went under the hammer in an online sale hosted by the auction house Bukowskis. Each piece, Vogue Scandinavia reported, contains "between 300 and 800 pairs of used tights". "For us, this is the ultimate form of sustainability," said Frisinger: an item meant to last a few months becomes furniture built to last decades. Frisinger herself, speaking to Sourcing Journal in 2024, widened the lens to the whole sector: "The apparel industry's biggest missed opportunity is the slow adoption of circular economy principles. Despite the clear environmental benefits, many brands have yet to fully embrace recycling, upcycling and sustainable material sourcing."

Lace, campaigns and fashion

Swedish Stockings does not want to be merely worthy. In November 2025, as Hypebae reported, it teamed up with Danish label Baum und Pferdgarten on the Laci Tight, a rose-lace design woven with the "BP" monogram in black, ivory and bordeaux, made from regenerated nylon sourced from discarded fishing nets and industrial waste.

August 2026 brought a rebrand, with a new logo and packaging, and an autumn/winter collection built, according to Vogue Scandinavia, on texture, colour and contrast: lace under slit trousers, stockings with a trench. "We're playing much more with texture, colour and contrast, treating the leg as an important part of the silhouette," Frisinger said.

What to check before you buy

• Read the composition. The recycled share is on each product page and varies widely. Compare it rather than trusting the word "sustainable".
• Pre- or post-consumer? Both count as recycled, but only the latter recovers items that have already been used, such as fishing nets.
• Match the weight to the job. A denser tight, such as an 80 denier, or a net will shrug off snags better than a fine sheer.
• Make them last. Hand wash or use a mesh bag, skip the tumble dryer, and take your rings off when you pull them on.
• Don't bin them. If you live in the EU, a laddered pair of any brand can go back into circulation through the Recycling Club.

The limit remains, and the brand does not hide it: the best yarn in the world will not stop a pair of tights from laddering. The real challenge, for Swedish Stockings and for the industry, is making what already exists last longer. Everything else is a very handsome table in the living room.