It's Getting Cold: How To Wear Tights and Hose
Tina, here.
One of the most oft-asked questions I get is how to wear tights and hose. The first answer is, you don't have to unless you're just cold. The second answer is you have to be really careful what kind you wear and how you wear them when you do wear them.
I roll my hose - takes up less room, and they're less likely to be damaged when not in use.
How To Wear Tights and Hose
Hosiery presents a minefield of potential fashion faux-pas on a grand scale. Allow me to escort you through the pitfalls and blessings of tights and hose in the 21st century.
If you’ve been looking for the right pair of hose, look no further than right here for my favorites, Donna Karan Hosiery The Nudes Control Top. And, for Vault members, I've added some great new styles to the October Style Vault, our members-only shopping and style guide.
1. Hose should make your legs look like your legs, just better.
This is one area where quality truly counts and where it is lacking, your legs will stand out like a sore thumb (does that even make sense?). Good hosiery is the epitome of QGT, or Quiet Good Taste. Your legs, but better. Cheap hose are yucky. They run and snag, they absorb instead of reflect light, and they lose their shape quickly (causing elephant knees and that pesky feeling of needing to hitch up your hose). Don't skimp on hose.
The effect you're after is what Brits call the "buttered leg."
What you want is a high-quality nylon with some man-made material like spandex thrown in for good measure. The higher the denier count, the more durable the hose.
These are my bare legs, no filter. Hose hide a multitude of problems: varicose veins, legs that didn't get shaved, ghostly pale skin and a host of other problems. Like a bruise in my case.
Not a huge difference, but worth the effort. Look closer this time at the difference in my knees and veins. It's going that last inch in dressing that puts you in the "she always looks so put-together" category.
What about the finish? Sheer? Opaque? Sheen? Shine? Matte? Color? Pattern? Texture?
The Duchess Kate, who famously made wearing hosiery cool again, wears sheer nude hose from George.com. You want sheer with a bit of sheen, but never a matte or a shiny surface. Look here for my favorites, Donna Karan Hosiery The Nudes Control TopI wear tone AO1 because I'm fair, but if you're a bit more olive, you'll want AO3. There are many shades in this collection.
You'll notice I'm not much for patterned hose in a dressy situation. I just added a new favorite little black dress to the October Style Vault, Style Notes.
Black hose (not tights) need to have a little sheen to them. Not matte (too flat). Not shiny (too show-girl). But sheen (just right).
I don't wear black opaque tights that often. They just seem heavy to me. But I do like a high-quality black hose with a bit of sheen. Wolford owns the high-quality hosiery market. We buy them by the dozens at the Paris outlets when the prices have been slashed.
That seam down the back of the leg kicks these hose up a notch. Definitely not from an egg on the aisle of a convenience store. I like fishnets, too, when they are very subtle, so subtle that they don't look like fishnets until you are right up on them.
2. Speaking of pattern, approach with caution.
Patterned hose and tights can work. But approach them with caution as they add volume and reflect little light, so you must have pretty darn good-lookin' legs to start with.
Remember, you want your legs to look like legs. A little pattern can be interesting, like with this casual outfit. But in general, I steer away from crazy embellished tights and hose that can draw the eye down to your bottom half.
A great rule of thumb is to keep everything in the same color if you're doing a patterned tight, like all browns here.
3. And tights? I typically like tights with boots.
They are heavier by definition, so if you wear them with flats or heels, you can look bottom-heavy. But boots are a good complement to tights. But it's perfectly fine not to wear any tights at all when you're wearing boots with a skirt or a dress.
I'm not a fan of a lot of color interruptions on the legs. That French blue with the chocolate brown is too jarring for me. I would either opt for no tights or choose nude hose and a nude shoe.
Much better with a skirt that relates to the chocolate brown on the color scale. When there's less of a color interruption, you get a longer, leaner line.
Tone on tone on tone. You can also see here how a pair of tights can make a short skirt seem a bit more age-appropriate if you're worried it's too short. Ribbed tights just added to the October Style Vault, Style Notes.
To keep things simple, wear black opaque tights with black boots...
...and brown opaque tights with brown boots.
One final caveat.
If your tights or hose have a reinforced toe, never wear them with a peep-toe shoe. That's like wearing socks with sandals.
Ok, final caveat, I promise: I hate to tell you this, but if you hand wash your tights and hose after each wearing, you will get a longer lifespan out of them. K that's all.
If you’re in the Nashville area, check out our amazing Nashville Wardrobe Consulting services. Don’t forget to join the Style Vault today to start shopping and saving.
Thanks for reading and all the best,
Tina
I’m addicted to the vault! I can’t get dressed without you!
~ another happy Style Vault insider
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