Alex Reyes (left) and her brother Tomas Reyes
Alex Reyes (left) and her brother Tomas Reyes
1/6
 
View all
1/6
 
Slider
Alex Reyes (left) and her brother Tomas Reyes
2/6
 
Slider
Alex Reyes (left) and her brother Tomas Reyes
3/6
 
Slider
4/6
 
Slider
5/6
 
Slider
6/6
 
Slider

A lot of ideas fall into the “necessity is the mother of invention” category—and when you’re a hairdresser, you have lots of necessities! If only you had the time to follow through on all of your great ideas! That’s how Alex Reyes felt most of the time she owned Tramps Salon. But once she sold her salon, she decided that the moment had come to pursue her idea.

“I’ve been a hairdresser for more than 40 years and have been wearing support hose for at least half of that time,” Reyes explains. “Like a lot of hairdressers, I started developing spider veins, and my legs were sore at the end of the day. Support hose helped, but they looked like support hose! I wanted hairdressers to be able to get even better support and in a fashionable way. So I created Tramps, named after the salon I owned, for hairdressers just like me.”

Reyes turned the project into a family affair. Her brother, Tomas Reyes, is a New York-based fashion designer, so it was natural to team up with him while another brother, Gabriel Reyes, had experience as a publicist. The trio established Tramps Fashion Compression Hosiery to offer stylists and other “stand up” professionals pantyhose in a breathable spandex blend providing light to medium compression.

The first available style, the no-cinch “Bryanna,” features open toes and a high waist for back support. It comes in four colors: Tramps Blue, Tramps Pink, Totally Black and Totally Nude. The “Jocelynne” hiphugger style will be next, and a maternity style is in the planning stages.

“In social media, men have told us they want Tramps, too!” Gabriel Reyes reports. “So we may develop a men’s line. We also plan to launch more colors and patterns, including original prints by Tomas.”

You can order from the Tramps website or by calling the toll-free number: 888-302-9292. Alex Reyes talks about Tramps here.

Photography for Tramps is by Max Gordon Photography.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, Click here.