internet tights window shopping!!

LET'S TIGHTS!! I'm not sure if I need new ones, honestly, but I'm starting to get convinced...

Grimoire
Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan's go-to "antique doll" / cult party-kei boutique. Their Verum line of legwear is gorgeous and unique, each piece having a transportingly unique vintage-themed design-- they look like Victorian engraving collages. Tights tend to run in the upper Y3000- Y4000 range (about $35-$45 USD apiece), but gosh, they are so beautiful. I am just crushing on these tights so hard. They do ship internationally, if you ask! Grimoire Ordering Guide

Celeste Stein
U.S. based, large-scale tight sublimation printing company. They have a insane breadth of designs to choose from to suit whatever style you wish, and they offer tights, socks, and leggings in a variety of different materials, but their selection process is really clunky and frustrating. You have to choose an item category (socks, tights, leggings, etc.), then the material or type from the next page (i.e. nylon tights), and then the site takes you to a pop-up print selector. There are almost 30 pages of print thumbnails to choose from, almost anything your heart desires, but it's poorly organized and hard to find anything specific, even via the category selection or search function.

I think it'd help to have more specific titles for the swatches, or a tagging system for each -- like "florals," or "animal prints" -- so you could search by tag. The existing titles are often vague, things like "Yes, Sir" or "Nice" that tell you nothing about the patterns themselves, or they are misspelled or just odd. By-the-by, "Yes Sir" appears to be a portrait of Bruce Lee, who, as much as I'd like to have his handsome mug displayed on my knee, I'd also like to see if the design works when worn It'd be great to see them modeled  so we can see how the designs are tiled and wrapped when transformed into tights form!! It's not immediately evident just by looking at the swatches, especially when you can see just a tiny bit of the pattern.  Er, and while we're at it, maybe a "view all thumbs" would be nice...

#105 Pastel Tapestry

#1061 Mosaic

#121 Spring

#120 Creation o Adam [sic]

#123 Natural Angel

#125 Angel Tapestry

#1301 Nira

#1359 Maddy Stripes

#1595 MIDEVAL [sic]

#1591 Cujo

#1473 Org Fleurdelis

#1609 SML BLK VERSACHE

#171 Red white bando

#123 Natural Angel

#258 Reality Check

#239 Treasure Chest

#218 Heaven

#201 Red Mekesh

#267 Teddy

#273 Strawberry Check

#379 Nice

#386 Granny Wall

#452 Yellow Bugs

#423 Rose Pourri

#389 Rust Daisy

#854 Pink Lace Floral

#876 Brown Denim + Eyelet

#936 Rose Paisley Cream

#984 Dainty White

TejaJamilla's Etsy Shop
Teja Jamilla Williams is a UK based indie designer who designs and hand prints some gorgeous tights. She also offers a wide range of sizes (including plus sizes) and colors. I am obsessed with the deer and mushroom design!! These tights are very versatile, and could work with more intricate lolita coordinates or a simpler casual outfit. If you're looking to support a talented independent designer, this is definitely a great place to start! I'm looking forward to seeing new designs from her.

Taobao
Of course I haven't forgotten you, TB~
I have, however, had a hard time finding comparable items this time, despite everything it has to offer! There are shopping services that will buy the tights from Grimoire for you, but other than that, it's difficult to find tights like the ones above...

Floral legging

Antique pattern legging

Cute, but not so close, unfortunately -_- I had lots of luck finding tattoo tights, and even found some galaxy super space-y print tights, which were all very tumblr, but those weren't really what I was after, either. It's still fun to look, though!

ModCloth
These two gems are up on ModCloth too (but beware, the first has very poor reviews in terms of quality.)

Lay of the Woodland Tights

A Tale of New Tights