What do Mary Portas and Monique Lhuillier have in common?

Did anyone catch the latest Mary Portas programme Mary Queen of Frocks on channel 4 recently? If you did then you would have seen her newest accessory that she teamed up with hosiery company CHARNOS to produce.

It's called Armery (duh) and it is genius for us women that have bingo wings! She came up with it because she was working on making line of clothes for middle aged women that wanted to be stylish (and not have to wear pastels!) And a problem that middle-aged, and some of us younger ones face when wearing anything sleeveless is flabby arms. And a one point in the programme for some unknown reason, she decided to put a pair of tights on her arms, and the rest is history.

I'm actually going to buy some now.

Since watching the programme I knew that the Armery reminded me of a collection I had seen a year or so ago but I just couldn't remember...until today.

I love the symmetry at the back

Of course! It's Monique Lhuillier's A/W'09 collection. It's full of laddered and holey tights worn both on the arms and legs.

I love the juxtaposition of the laddered tights with the lavish elegant dresses, but actually having said that I think they actually work really well together and don't look massively out of place. I think the laddered tights make the dresses look even more expensive and luxurious. If I ever get the opportunity to wear a gown like these I would definitely rip a few holes in my tights!

I'm listening to: Flash flood by Aesop Rock
Images from: style.com