Ann’s Tight-Dyeing Guide
D.I.Y. the coolest, homemade accessory from the designer’s fall collection.
At Ann Yee’s fall 2011 presentation—the designer’s first!—everyone was psyched about the floor-length silk skirts and natty, elastic-ankled pants, but there was also tons of buzz about the totally unique tights, which the designer whipped up in her kitchen. Start with a sheer pair that you’re tired of right about now—or pick up drugstore nude stockings (used for our demo)—and get dyeing.
Bonus: This homemade accessory looks especially cool with a mini and the drapey black chiffon shirt that the designer made with Of a Kind in mind. Click here to score one of only ten.
1. “First, you boil a big pot of water. Then, you start knotting the tights. You just do it in random areas—however close or far apart you want them—to vary the pattern. Just make sure that the knots are pretty tight but not so tight that you can’t undo them. It’s worth dyeing a couple pairs at once because it looks cool to layer them.”
2. “So, the water doesn’t need to fully boil because you don’t want it too, too hot. When it starts simmering, you shut the stove off, put on rubber or latex gloves, and add the dye. You can use any color you want, and I eyeball it. I like to do about a capful of the red liquid Rit dye, a ¼ cap of the black liquid one, and then a sprinkling of the blue powder dye, which is good for highlighting. Then you add a couple tablespoons of salt, which helps make the dye stay.”
3. “You have to really massage the tights to make sure the dye gets in there. Then you wring them out, let them cool, untie them, rinse them, and hang them to dry.”
The final product, as seen in Ann’s fall 2011 lookbook.
