My observations of fall hose and tights

Footsiefreak · Post by **Footsiefreak** » Tue Oct 13, 2015 6:59 pm

I have been taking more frequent trips downtown and notice that the younger crowd (ladies 30 and under) are mostly wearing black/gray tights /hose about 90% of them.I don't mind it but why is nude not as popular among that crowd?

BlackFoot · Post by **BlackFoot** » Tue Oct 13, 2015 10:00 pm

i love women in nude pantyhose/stockings. i hope it comes back in style! when it starts to get cool outside as Footsiefreak said women tend to only wear black/gray tights even if you watch qvc and hsn. when they start wearing hose its usually black or dark color tights only.

paradigm88 · Post by **paradigm88** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 3:38 am

My fiancee is a tights girl more than a nylon girl - which means when it's cold enough for hose, she usually reverts to her basic black (with the odd blue, burgundy or gray mixed in).

The big thing for her with tights is durability. She's on her feet all day for work, as a teacher and working part-time retail. She'd destroy nylons if she wore them, but tights wear better and last longer. And on a teacher's salary, not having to buy new hose every week or two is a godsend.

Women tend to run cold anyway, so especially where it gets cold in the fall and winter, opaque tights, fleece-lined tights and leggings are all thicker than sheer nylons. (I often figure a number of women are opting for black leggings under their skirt and tall boots, instead of proper tights.) My fiancee is the opposite, so she'll go bare-legged until she has to wear tights. By contrast, my best friend's wife wore two pairs of black tights (with sandals) when we went out for a nice dinner, because her legs weren't warm enough with one.

Then there's the fashion/style aspect. Sheer hose seems to be reserved now for formal occasions or "mature" women. I admit that opaques have a younger attitude about them, more casual. But in thinking of the more formal events I've been to lately, if hose are necessary, my female friends opt for opaque tights over nylons. My fiancee wore nude hose to a wedding a couple years ago, but her dress was light and dark tights would have looked tacky. Last year, she went bare at all five weddings we attended. Then, so did most of the women.

Fortunately, I love women in opaque tights sans shoes, particular black and white tights, so this time of year is my favorite, before all the boots come out!

Footsiefreak · Post by **Footsiefreak** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 4:59 pm

You bring up a good point Paradigm.The mature crowd (30 and over) wear the nude/suntan hose from my observations maybe its 30% here.I say they grew up wearing hose so why stop now?

I did notice a young cutie wearing nude in a skirt but its a rarity as I mentioned before

llama · Post by **llama** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 8:16 pm

i think paradigm made some excellent points. you were spot on with your observations. My observations are mostly from seeing women after work at the grocery store , since im on disabilty retirement, but i saw an employee at the bank wearing thick black tights yesterday

llama · Post by **llama** » Thu Oct 15, 2015 11:40 pm

llama wrote:i think paradigm made some excellent points. you were spot on with your observations. My observations are mostly from seeing women after work at the grocery store , since im on disabilty retirement, but i saw an employee at the bank wearing thick black tights yesterday

Update, just got homr from a suburban higher end grocery store- Mostly women in running shoes , a few in flats with no hose... One stunning woman in nude house and pumps and one in a skirt , tights and boots. The one in hose had just gotten in line, and looked ready to dip, but I had to keep moving, there was no place for me to pretend to be browsing and spy on her

paradigm88 · Post by **paradigm88** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 1:54 pm

I'd even extend the "mature crowd" to 40 and over, only because I have to move the bar above my own age.

Even going back to the school days, sheer nylons seemed to be reserved for formal/professional occasions, and opaque tights were for casual dress. Teachers wore nylons. Parents wore nylons. Students doing presentations or interviews wore nylons. Girls wearing a skirt "just because" went bare-legged, or wore tights. Most of the girls who I remember wearing skirts and dresses without having a real reason for doing so would opt for tights.

So for younger women, say under 40, tights have been a part of their fashion arsenal for a long time, not just for casual wear but to pair with a dark dress or skirt in the winter. Most women older than that probably had stockings/nylons as their first option, and tights were still something younger women wore before they were "mature" enough to wear hose. I'd say my generation had the same approach to start, but fashion started to shift somewhere in that timeframe (say, the late '90s to early '00s), to where colored tights weren't just something for little girls, and patterns and knits (besides the ubiquitous cable-knit) started becoming more common.

Back in school, I was part of a future-business-students program, and at our conferences, the dress code specifically pointed out hosiery with a dress/skirt for women. In competition, we had to wear blue blazers, so the khaki-skirt-with-nude-hose combination was pretty universal for young women. I still assist with the program today as a judge. The regional conventions are not as rigid as nationals - you aren't required to wear the blue blazer, just business-appropriate attire - so you see a wider range of approaches, many of which are more accommodating of tights. But my subconscious will still pick up on the girl with nude hose and ballet flats, think "well, how professional," then see the girl in black tights and the same flats and think "aww, how cute!"

Footsiefreak · Post by **Footsiefreak** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 4:25 pm

paradigm88 wrote:I'd even extend the "mature crowd" to 40 and over, only because I have to move the bar above my own age.

Even going back to the school days, sheer nylons seemed to be reserved for formal/professional occasions, and opaque tights were for casual dress. Teachers wore nylons. Parents wore nylons. Students doing presentations or interviews wore nylons. Girls wearing a skirt "just because" went bare-legged, or wore tights. Most of the girls who I remember wearing skirts and dresses without having a real reason for doing so would opt for tights.

So for younger women, say under 40, tights have been a part of their fashion arsenal for a long time, not just for casual wear but to pair with a dark dress or skirt in the winter. Most women older than that probably had stockings/nylons as their first option, and tights were still something younger women wore before they were "mature" enough to wear hose. I'd say my generation had the same approach to start, but fashion started to shift somewhere in that timeframe (say, the late '90s to early '00s), to where colored tights weren't just something for little girls, and patterns and knits (besides the ubiquitous cable-knit) started becoming more common.

Back in school, I was part of a future-business-students program, and at our conferences, the dress code specifically pointed out hosiery with a dress/skirt for women. In competition, we had to wear blue blazers, so the khaki-skirt-with-nude-hose combination was pretty universal for young women. I still assist with the program today as a judge. The regional conventions are not as rigid as nationals - you aren't required to wear the blue blazer, just business-appropriate attire - so you see a wider range of approaches, many of which are more accommodating of tights. But my subconscious will still pick up on the girl with nude hose and ballet flats, think "well, how professional," then see the girl in black tights and the same flats and think "aww, how cute!"

When I was a kid in the 80s I only noticed women wearing hose no opaque tights at all.

I did go downtown yesterday and noticed a few more younger ladies (30 and younger) wearing nude hose but its still the minority compared to tights.

Footsiefreak · Post by **Footsiefreak** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 4:27 pm

Only times I seen tights as an 80s kid is when we did a Shakespearan play lol

Tomi · Post by **Tomi** » Fri Oct 16, 2015 11:41 pm

In my city it is really a mixed picture. I can see opaques already with skirts and boots, but also sheer nylons with skirts and boots. There are also pumps here and there, mostly with opaques but I saw also few ladies with sheer tan nylons. My sweetest was wearing few times in september also sheer nylons with skirt, but as the october turned cold and rainy, she is reluctant to wear skirts. She however put twice tan sheer nylons under her jeans, which was great to see

footoncrotch · Post by **footoncrotch** » Sun Oct 18, 2015 8:57 am

my wife switched directly from barefeet ballerina to coton socks with low boots. Unfortunately she rarely wears nylons. when she does so, only opaques....

paradigm88 · Post by **paradigm88** » Sun Oct 18, 2015 5:25 pm

My fiancee and I spent a little time outlet shopping yesterday. One of her favorite stores is Ann Taylor Loft - a more casual, younger take on the Ann Taylor name, mostly work-appropriate apparel. While we were shopping, in the back of my head I paid attention to the hosiery selection in the store. Granted, this is an outlet store so I'm not sure how representative that is of the "real" mall store's selection. But their legwear options were limited pretty much to tights and leggings. And the tights display was overwhelmingly black, or black-based patterns (black houndstooth, or black diamonds, or ribbed), with a couple other dark shades like purple or blue.

The preppy-casualwear store we stopped by also focused on dark tights, black and blue and brown, fleece-lined and footless, but nothing sheer. But that was sort of to be expected.

As for the girls shopping? No surprise, lots of tight jeans and boots. Or leggings and boots. Or, sadder still, leggings and Uggs.