What are you wearing on your legs? If you belong to the fashion world, the chances are zero. These women walk with bare legs and do it with a thin layer of moisturizer until the snow piles up on the streets.
As for the rest of us, we’re back to pants and socks, searching the back of the drawer for those durable black opaque garments – quietly grateful to have a blanket for our legs again after a long summer of limb pruning.
Just not that fast. Don’t burn your opaque yet, but – horn alert – the tights you should wear now are sheer, just like the tights you wore in the 1980s with a puffball skirt and pumps. And these tights are not only suitable for the evening with your velvet cocktail dress; they are tights that you can always wear with everything.
This is a big part of the season’s big change – the shift towards polished, put-together, elegant clothing – and for that you need polished, elegant hosiery.
Over forty denier now looks way too heavy, not to mention a bit sloppy – and industrial strength. If you want your denim skirt and fur jacket to have the right shine and glamour, you will have to take the net curtains out of the closet.
Jennifer Lawrence, pictured, sported a stylish ensemble at an event in Las Vegas earlier this year
If you want last year’s block-colored dress to last all fall, add sheer black tights and shiny boots. And if you prefer black and monochrome, lighten that dense look from head to toe with sheer tights and narrow heel slingbacks.
Even if you’re wearing knee-high boots, a glimpse of sheer stocking in the slit at the front of your skirt is what looks modern right now. So while your heart may sink at the thought of giving up your bombproof tights, consider it a way to future-proof the clothes you own: sheer tights will make your dresses, skirts and even your cropped pants look good . .
The practical disadvantage cannot be avoided: translucent tights go up more easily and you will have to be more careful: moisturize first and take off the rings before putting them on; make sure they are long enough – hitching is the biggest cause of snags; and choose styles with the fewest seams and therefore the fewest stress points.
That said, sheer hosiery has come a long way since we last wrestled with it, especially if you’re willing to pay a little more.
Top of the list would be the Falke Pure Matt 20 Tights (£18, falke.com), which are arguably worth it for the minimal seams/durability points, but otherwise head straight to Marks and Spencer for a three-pack in 20 denier (£5, marksand spencer.com), and put them in a washing net before putting them in the washing machine.
It’s also true that sheer tights aren’t the maintenance-free option (you can’t get away with hairy calves in 20 denier) but they provide more coverage than you think and work a bit like airbrushing and contouring.
You may feel more secure in firm, opaque tights, but I guarantee you’ll feel more sophisticated and sexy in sheer tights – it’s just a matter of getting used to them again.
The ideal denier is 20 – don’t go lower or you’ll be lucky if they wear more than once – but when in doubt, 30 denier, although officially semi-sheer, is a good starting point. Again, try Marks & Spencer (£8 for a pack of three) or Charnos (£6.50, johnlewis.com).
Lily Collins looked glamorous chic at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in April
Model Gigi Hadid pictured on the catwalk at a 2020 Chanel show, wearing sheer tights
And whatever you do, don’t turn on them before you give them a chance. It wasn’t that long ago that we accepted without question that there was nothing as attractive as a leg in sheer pantyhose.
If you quickly flip through your fashion icon Rolodex, you’ll come across Anne Bancroft in The Graduate (those were stockings, but still, black and sheer and they’re on the poster, they’re that good); Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s; the models in the Robert Palmer Addicted To Love music video; Princess Diana in that black revenge dress – they all wore sheer black stockings.
Soon you’re reaching for your midi dress and wondering how you could have tucked virtual leggings underneath. They already feel like tights made for your Rainbow Warrior niece, not so much for you. This is how it starts. Next we upgrade to leopard print underwear.