This Friday Underlines chats to Alex Tymann, Co-Founder and CEO of Hedoine, erstwhile the ‘world’s best tights and overknees’. Lauded by the fashion press, we wanted to find out more about the person behind this virtually indestructible hosiery brand. Her ambition to turn a forgotten drawer essential into a power piece – a product that needs to keep up with women’s lives today!
Life before Hedoine…?
I spent five years in restructuring consulting at PwC, working with companies in situations where things weren’t quite working and needed to be fixed – often under enormous time pressure. That experience shaped how I think: structured, solution-oriented, and comfortable navigating complexity.
I later moved into venture building, developing and scaling different business models, which added a more entrepreneurial lens. Alongside that, I was always drawn to building something of my own, so Hēdoïne felt like a natural next step.
In a way, the common thread was always the same: seeing something with untapped potential and wanting to make it better. Hēdoïne just happened to be the version that was a lot more tangible, creative and frankly more fun.
Why legwear?
It started with frustration, a dinner with a friend and enough wine to turn complaints into a business idea.
Tights were either disposable, uncomfortable, or simply uninspiring. It’s such an everyday product, worn close to the body, replaced frequently – and yet for a long time, it didn’t feel like a category that had been meaningfully rethought. That felt like a missed opportunity.
More broadly, the category felt outdated in how it spoke to women. The product hadn’t evolved, but neither had the narrative around it. We wanted to create something stronger, sharper, more modern – a product that actually supports the day-to.day-life women are living now.
I often say we’ve turned a forgotten drawer essential into a power piece – something that actually contributes to how you feel when you wear it, and one less thing to be annoyed about before 9am.
That idea sits very much at the heart of Hēdoïne.
What’s your brand’s DNA? When did it launch?
Hēdoïne launched in 2019 with a very clear point of view: tights should perform like technical apparel, but feel like fashion. The brand was founded to challenge the status quo in hosiery and create premium legwear for women who refuse to compromise.
We approach legwear more like engineered product than styling exercise. Everything starts with construction – yarns, tension, durability, fit. Our core products are seamless, ladder-resistant, shaping, and designed for longevity. We produce in Italy with highly specialised partners, using advanced knitting and premium yarns, and we’re deliberately uncompromising when it comes to quality and design.
At the same time, the brand is about more than product. Hēdoïne is built around a mindset – confident, intelligent, independent, slightly irreverent. We design for women who are doing things, going places, running companies, marathons, or just fashionably late to dinner. The product needs to keep up with that life. That’s why our purpose has always gone beyond selling tights – at its core, it’s about supporting women to live and lead on their own terms without compromise.
What is different about working in this sector?
Personally, I’ve swapped Excel and PowerPoint for yarns, supply chain and product development – which I enjoy far more. There’s something very satisfying about going from an idea to a physical product that people actually wear and love.
Coming into the industry as an outsider also had its advantages. You ask questions that people inside the category may have stopped asking. Why is laddering still accepted as normal? Why do so many products have waistbands that dig in, or seams that show through dresses? And why are there still so many compromises between performance, comfort, design, and longevity?
I was also surprised by how technical tights really are. From the outside, they look simple. In reality, tiny decisions around yarn, knitting structure, waistbands, toes, fit and finishing completely change the experience. When you get it right, customers are fiercely loyal. When you get it wrong, they know immediately. There’s something quite refreshing about that level of honesty.
A typical week
A constant balance between product, numbers and brand.
There’s usually time with our Italian manufacturers, reviewing development, production, timelines and quality. Then deep dives into growth – performance marketing, retention, customer behaviour, wholesale opportunities. Then there’s team, hiring, strategy, marketing – and increasingly how we integrate AI intelligently across the business.
And then, of course, a fair amount of solution-finding – which, in reality, is most of the job. Founders are essentially professional context-switchers with a mild email problem.
Whom do you admire in the industry?
I have a lot of respect for founders and companies that have built longevity through consistency.
Success is rarely about one big splashy moment, but about discipline, clarity and getting the fundamentals right over time – product, brand, distribution, customer trust. I admire businesses that understand who they are and don’t dilute that every five minutes.
On a founder level, I’m always drawn to people with a strong point of view – founders whose personality genuinely runs through the business, in a considered way, not in a performative, Netflix-documentary way. You can feel when a brand is an extension of someone’s thinking. Sara Blakely is a great example of that – wit, clarity, commercial instinct and personality all at once.
If you were not working in this industry, what would you be doing instead?
Still building something – even if it’s my dream house on an island. That part is probably a given.
I’d likely be working on something linked to fashion waste or systemic inefficiencies in the industry. Building Hēdoïne really opened my eyes to how much waste, overproduction and short-term thinking still exists in fashion. Once you see it, it’s hard to unsee.
I’m also very interested in what technology and AI could unlock there – smarter product development, better demand planning, more efficient decision-making, less waste built into the system.
So perhaps the answer is: probably another problem we’ve learned to live with – and I’d be looking at how it could be done better.
Your greatest challenge?
Scaling without losing the essence – and building in a world that constantly rewards noise.
We’ve always believed in substance: product that performs, a brand that means something and decisions that hold up over time. It’s not the fastest route, but I do believe it’s the more enduring one.
That mindset is what carried us through the pandemic, at a time when Hēdoïne was only six months old.
And who would have thought the pandemic wouldn’t end up being the craziest chapter of all, considering everything that’s going on in the world right now.
Proudest moment to date?
The community and repeat customer base we’ve built. In this category, that’s the clearest validation that the product is doing what it’s supposed to do. You can’t fake repeat behaviour.
And then there have been a few slightly surreal moments along the way – receiving an order from Buckingham Palace a few years ago, or being approached by the Victoria Beckham team for a collaboration, which felt like a particularly nice validation.
Worst move so far?
Trying to do too much at once. I think every founder learns this repeatedly – ‘opportunity overload’. But usually the real unlock comes from doing fewer things, better.
Any other ambitions for Hedoine going ahead?
We’re expanding beyond tights into a broader universe of body-adjacent categories. The ambition is to apply the same level of rigour and thinking to other everyday essentials that haven’t evolved in a meaningful way.
Commercially, there is still a lot of room to grow the brand internationally, through both wholesale and strategic partnerships.
Where do you think you will be in 10 years’ time?
I’d love to have created something that has real impact, whether within Hēdoïne or beyond it. Something that combines commercial success with a more meaningful contribution, particularly around how products are made, consumed and valued.
I also hope that by then I’ll have had the chance to work on ideas beyond product alone, for example around fashion waste or more structural change within the industry.
Time out
Travel and quality time with my husband, friends around the world, and family are at the top of the list. I love meeting new people and creating connections, but I also make time to read – usually around one book per month.
The one thing you couldn’t live without?
Nature, and meaningful time with my husband, friends and family.
Pet Hate?
Big egos, fakeness, and superficiality – especially when it replaces substance.
You can contact Alex on alex.tymann@hedoine.com.
