2012 apocalypse confirmed as male patterned tights go on sale

Well, it's finally happened. Male patterened tights have gone on sale in Italy and have already been dubbed, among many other terms, 'mantyhose', 'guylons' or 'broisery'.

Although it's easy to blame the recent popularity of base layer running tights for the horrific designs, the real culprit behind unisex hosiery is Italian designer Emilio Cavallini, who claims that 2 percent of the four million yearly sales of his fashion house's range of unisex pantyhose come from male customers.

“When we started our online shop we noticed that a lot of tights sized medium-large were being purchased by men,” Cavallini told Women's Wear Daily magazine.

“So I did search on the Internet and discovered there is a cult following for mantyhose . . . we came up with the concept of creating tights that both men and women could wear,” he added.

The designer claims that although - rather unsurprisingly - black is his biggest seller, many men are not just using the tights as an extra layer in Winter; they're teaming them with shorts too.

Could the trend ever catch on in Ireland and might it be the antidote to the Irish curse of perenially pale legs? Don't bet on it...