Introducing Billi London: Part One

In recent weeks, we have been looking in much more detail at what hosiery manufacturers and brands are doing in relation to sustainability. It's been a learning journey, prompted by reading that it is estimated that there is in excess of 103,000 tons of hosiery waste created every year around the world, the equivalent of more than 8,000 double-decker buses. It's not inaccurate to talk about tights as a type of 'single-use plastic'.

When investigating developments in so-called 'eco hosiery', we came across a brand that claims to make the world's first biodegradable tights. That brand is called Billi London.





To find out more about them we spoke to Sophie Billi-Hardwick, the co-founder of Billi London.



Billi London is a relatively new hosiery brand. Can you tell Hosiery For Men readers who is behind it and what makes the brand unique and innovative?

Billi London has been co-founded in the UK by two French entrepreneurs, Marie and I, and the tights are made in Italy. We officially launched the brand in November 2020 when we received our first production, so we are really new!

But we’ve been working on the brand since 2019 and we’ve been obsessed with it since then. We want to fix the unsustainable tights industry and we want our clients to be proud to show their legs again.


Classic 30 Denier Biodegradable Tights

So we have created the world’s first biodegradable tights, which are part of the transition towards a circular economy model. They are a real innovation for the tights industry as we are drastically reducing the amount of waste created by tights in landfills.

Like any new innovation, it required a lot of trials and errors, we went through multiple rounds of prototypes to get it right! We’ve worked hand in hand with our partner in Italy who worked so hard to ensure we could find the correct weaving technique offering premium, durable and comfortable enhanced biodegradable tights.


Classic 30 Denier Biodegradable Tights

You are really clear that ethical and sustainable practices are at the heart of everything you do. Can you tell us more about your commitments to sustainability?

Our key guiding principle when we first started to build the brand was that we were never going to create garments that were going to pollute our planet and sit in landfills for centuries. I don’t get how a brand can be created nowadays without having ethical and sustainable practices at the heart. It has to be and soon enough (I hope) it won’t be a differentiator anymore, but the norm. I would like our clients to fall in love with Billi London for what we stand for, our universe, and of course because of the quality of the product design.

There is definitely a general increase in awareness of how unsustainable the fashion industry is and its impact on climate change. Our role since launching the brand has been to educate women and men on the impacts that tights specifically have on the planet, and change their rapport with tights from being a disposable afterthought to a sustainable and durable fashion essential.



We are currently applying to get the B Corporation certificate and we’ve been using and applying their guidelines since day 1. Our production line in Italy leaves a beneficial footprint for human society and the planet by minimising or avoiding the use of chemical products and focusing on low energy and water consumption best practices, verified by the HIGG Index, Oeko Tex ® Detox to Zero, Zero Discharge Hazardous Chemical contribution and the SMETA - Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit.


Coco Biodegradable Tights

It’s currently only Marie and myself working on the brand but we are aiming to work with freelancers and recruit soon and we want to make the pledge to have 80% of the people we employ from the under-represented background and those who don’t have the same chances as us (women, BAME, disabled, refugees, etc). It’s just the beginning!

Billi London claim to be the world's first biodegradable tights. Can you explain what this means and why this is different from recycling?

We are the only brand creating 100% biodegradable tights, meaning both our nylon and the elastane used will biodegrade in a record time. It’s been an intense process of R&D, but we are proud to have received the official certifications from the labs.

Our tights will biodegrade in a record time of just five years instead of 40 to 100 years for any other tights.



We are championing biodegradability because using recycled nylon is only postponing the waste issue in the tights industry instead of tackling it at its core.

It is important to note that it is impossible to recycle a used pair of tights into a new one. Each year, two billion pairs of tights are produced and discarded (this represents 7,000 tonnes of waste in landfills just in France for instance).

The separation of the two materials (nylon and elastane) once combined together is technically impossible, so tights made with recycled nylon won’t improve the landfill waste issues caused by the tights industry. Therefore a laddered pair of tights made with recycled nylon that’s then thrown away will pollute like any other tights made with virgin nylon and elastane.

The recycling of tights into another product is possible though, but very limited. Tights can be collected and reintroduced into other industries such as insulation panels and padding-type products for homes and cars. However, the act of bringing tights to a collection centre for used textiles is rare and not yet fully realised: only 10% of cases among users.

By wearing Billi London tights, you can contribute to reducing the time that a pair of tights pollute the environment in landfill by more than 80%. Plus, they will decompose into organic matter (biomass) and biogas creating renewable resources, and participate in the transition towards a circular economy model.

Part Two of this feature will follow.