Cover girls: how to wear tights this season, from fishnets to nearly-sheers

Bare-leg brigade, take note - deniers are back and better than ever
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Karen Dacre18 October 2016

This has been a stellar year for desk chatter. Nowhere more so than the desk at which I sit, with conversations about Brexit, which hot meats and condiments to have in your M&S deli box and the identity of Becky With The Good Hair among 2016’s hottest topics.

Crucial talk of tights (if we’re wearing them, what is an appropriate time to wear them, how proud we feel when we’re not wearing them) also figures among regularly occurring topics.

If you’re the type who likes to pass the time between hard graft and the next flat white run with such top level discussions, chances are you’re already well versed in the office tights conversation.

Autumn, of course, is prime time for tights talk as the anti-opaques among us attempt to pit our bare legs against rapidly dropping temperatures, while the pro-nylons slip cosily back into their happy place.

Bella Hadid walks Miu Miu AW16 in Paris 
PixelFormula/Sipa/Rex

This year, fuelled by fashion’s powers that be, the debate is fiercer than ever as the bare-legs brigade find themselves taken to task by Miuccia Prada and Gucci’s Alessandro Michele. Didn’t you get the memo?

Tights are officially back in vogue. Yes, while bare legs - even on really, really chilly days - were last winter’s preoccupation for anyone with a hardy constitution and a nice long coat, this year opaques are finally back on the menu.

This revelation, great news for those who view their tights as a portable comfort blanket, has a lot to do with the return of the dress - a development that has been gaining pace over the summer. For some, particularly those who find wearing tights more uncomfortable than a dinner date with Donald Trump, such news is likely to go down like a lead-filled pair of stockings.

But help is at hand. British bodywear brand Heist, an online phenomenon, claims to have “fixed” tights by making them a pleasure to wear instead of a chore. Born out of a distaste for wearable dental floss, the Heist philosophy combines seamless design with extra- soft and extra-stretchy yarn and a waistband that is designed to stay in place throughout the day, therefore preventing any Nora Batty moments.

Keen to discover if Heist’s claims were hot air or hard fact - and of course to spend time debating their merits - we road-tested a selection. As a long-term tights-phobe, I was pleasantly surprised: the yarn is super-soft and these bad boys felt comfier than most. My desk colleagues took a similar view - with one noting that her Heists kept her stomach in check all day long. Other brands, notably M&S and Falke, have also been making strides, with ultra comfortable fabric and seamless design very much the buzzwords in hosiery right now.

Whatever your tights preference, there are rules to their re-emergence. Among them is the idea, mooted by Gucci’s Michele, that your hose should match your outfit rather than clashing with it.

Gucci at Milan Fashion Week AW16

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To be as AW16 as possible I also recommend teaming your tights with skirts or dresses that fall to knee height or above - anything longer and you must opt for a lower denier.

If pencil skirts are your thing, make like Carine Roitfeld and opt for a pair of nearly-sheers. For added flair, fishnets or even a patterned print as endorsed by Mrs Prada, are a smart move.

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