A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a trip I was going on to Burma/Myanmar and how I was hoping our Not Too Tights would keep me warm. Well, I have a few things to report. First, if you haven't been to Myanmar and are considering it, GO. It's an amazing place with lovely people. Second, it may be warm during the day during peak travel time (November - January) but it's COLD at night. I guess that's why while we call it peak travel time, the locals call it the "cold season." I'm a genius, huh?

Fortunately I was eased into it. We started in Bagan, which was an amazing place with beautiful temples scattered about. 

It got cold in Bagan at night, but we were staying in a hotel room that had a bit of heat, we didn't know at the time how lucky that was!  Next we went to Kalaw, which is further north. There it got even colder at night, though we did have a hotel room and they brought us a space heater when we asked for it. After that it was the 4 day trek to Inle Lake. Yup, we trekked right along side many an animal.

These kids give a whole new meaning to "helping your parents around the house." And to think I constantly complained about emptying the dishwasher!

Ok, this is the funny part. At the end of the first day, we got to the house we were apparently staying in. It was a house made of bamboo, no running water, the "bathroom" was a little shack with a hole in the ground and the electricity was one light bulb hanging from a wire that worked for a couple of hours each night off of the energy it got from a solar panel during the day. Oh, and we were sleeping on a cushion on the ground in the main room (there were really only 2 rooms.) Ok, that's cool, we came for the experience. It was starting to get colder (uh!!!) so I went into the "kitchen" to hang out. 

After several minutes of being amazing watching how someone could cook such good food in this kitchen, I asked when our bags were arriving. The guide looked at me rather confused and said, "Oh, when we said we will bring your bags to the next hotel, we meant the hotel at the end, not the guest houses in between." So there we were, first day into a 4 day trek with nothing but the clothes on our backs and the few extra things we kept to bring warm before our bags arrived (tights, wohoo!!) Not a toothbrush in sight. Hi-larious. 

I don't have pictures to show you of this part because my iphone died and thus my camera. But for 4 days straight I wore the same clothes and every evening I added a fleece, hat and tights. And I have to tell you, when you are sleeping on the floor of a bamboo house (basically outside) in 40(F) degree weather, you are going to need your tights! 

When we finally arrived at Inle Lake (beautiful, see below) I don't think I've been so happy in my life to see a shower, bar of soap and heat.

In conclusion: go to Burma, get accurate information about what you will be doing and bring tights to stay warm (and it helps to have the kind that aren't so uncomfortable that you hate doing EVERYTHING in them!)

And we thought we only loved mini skirts because they look good! Turns out they are also the reason tights became so popular and why we have them today. Models Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton couldn't get enough of the mini skirt, and they needed tights to wear with them.  Twiggy even introduced her own tights (or panti tights - haha!) line.

Thanks for the tights Twiggy, at least you did something else besides make us feel fat!

Who wouldn't agree that it's cray cray what they did to Jennifer Lawrence on the cover of Flare magazine? She looks amazing as is, we would kill to look like that. 

And check out what they did to her in this underwear shot!

We don't like it one bit. Another example of why we created Not Too Tights by Wade & Belle. Real girls eat and wear tights, and don't want to feel bad about it, uncomfortable or lumpy and bumpy in their clothes. 

There is a time for sucking, but there is an everyday need for looking great AND feeling good. 

You might be surprised to hear that tights were invented by a man, Allen Grant. Sr., in 1959. But you won't be surprised to hear that he did so at the request of his wife!  They are too good not to have been a woman's idea. Let's be honest, men would have kept us suffering in garters (and school girl uniforms if they had theiri own way!) According to the Smithsonian and Allen Grant Jr., the inventor's son, it all started when Grant and his wife, Ethel Boone Grant, were on an overnight train returning home from the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. Ethel was pregnant at the time and was finding it difficult to manage her stockings and garter belt over her expanding belly. As a proper lady wouldn't be seen in public without her hosiery (obvi), she informed her husband that this would be her last trip with him until their child was born. Tell him Ethel!

Grant gave that some thought and asked Ethel what she thought of a pair of underwear with stockings attached to them, which would avoid the hassle of a garter belt. Ethel thought it was a great idea and stitched together a rough sample that Grant took to his office as he was running Glen Raven Mills Textile Company at the time. With the help of his colleagues, he developed what they called "Panti-Legs" and launched the product in department stores. 

But, it wasn't until the mid-1960s when the mini skirt was the new "in" thing to wear and garters actually couldn't be worn with them that the concept took off. Sales of pantyhose sky rocketed as fashion forward women wanted a pair of their own. We like that Ethel!