Fashion Electronic Telegraph
Saturday 1 February 1997

Lingerie takes the plunge

A name synonymous with classy tights and sensual 'bodies' has launched its own swimwear, reports Hilary Alexander.

For more than a decade, black opaque tights have been the essential accessory of the working wardrobe. They are produced by virtually any hosiery company worth its stretch. The brand beloved of the fashion-pack and aspirational for any teenage girl making the leap from trainers to real shoes emanates from a long-established family company on Lake Constance in Austria.

"Wolfords" has become "fashspeak" for tights, the way "Manolos" has become the shorthand for seriously sexy spike-heeled shoes made by London's Manolo Blahnik and a "Yohji" refers to anything designed by the gnome-like Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto.

Wolford tights - and the essential "bodies" which are their natural partners - have never been cheap; top price is £29 for the deluxe "velvet" control tops; the sensual, semi-sheer cleavage-bodies can cost £75 -plus. However, they have a must-have appeal whatever the price tag, which owes as much to the smooth, matt texture, lasting quality and glove-like stretch-fit as to the provocative billboard images by cult photographer Helmut Newton.

It is, then, hardly surprising that when the company decided to branch out into swimwear for the first time, it would do so with a splash. The collection has been designed by Chantall Thomass, the Frenchwoman responsible for some of the most sensual lingerie to carry a made-in France label. She has used exactly the same Lycra-boosted lightweight yarns as are used for Wolford tights to produce a collection of "Swimbodies".

Fittingly, the promotional campaign has been shot by renowned American underwater fashion photographer Howard Schatz, who turned the models into true water-babes. "It requires very special girls," he says."They have to be able to swim, maintain a beautiful face without pursing their lips, squeezing their eyes or puffing out their cheeks. And hold their breath for up to 30 seconds." Thomass donned swimsuit and goggles for the shoot and joined Schatz at the deep end of a San Francisco swimming pool to ensure that the wet -look was the right look. The Swimbodies collection is priced £65 to £115 and includes seamed and under- wired styles, as well as
seamless tanks. On sale from today at Fenwick, New Bond Street , London W1, and Royal Victoria Place, Tunbridge Wells (inquiries : 0171-629 9161); Ricemans, St George's Lane, Canterbury; Wolford boutiques in London, Newcastle, Cardiff and Birmingham (inquiries: 0171-935 9202)