Nude tights - why the hatred?

[ZombiePlan]

I've seen so many journos and style bloggers criticising the Duchess of Cambridge for wearing sheer nude tights (despite the fact that she has to wear tights due to Royal protocol). But I don't understand why they seem to universally be seen as a bad thing? I think my legs look much worse when left bare (tbh I think most people look better in tights) and, let's face it, even in summer it can be bloody cold in the UK. So why the hatred? I genuinely don't get it. Can someone tell me why sheer tights are so reviled?

Besides, having bare feet in closed court shoes is yuck. I don't want my feet swimming around sweatily in court shoes. I have tried those little socks that you can wear in them but I haven't found any that don't ride down or slip off.

I love nude tights. My legs are great but I hate being cold. And tights even out the skin tone and little imperfections (blue veins etc). The LA look (I think not wearing tights became first popular with movie stars on red carpet) simply doesn't function in our climate. No, I don't wear tights in tropics, but summer usually does not equal sandal weather in Northern Europe.

My only complaint is that it is not easy to find a good shade of nude pantyhose. I don't want to look like an ice skater, I don't want anything too tan. If we had the same selection of tones in nude tights we have in foundations, it would be so much easier.

And the court shoe socks are the nastiest thing on earth.

I like nude tights for some of the reasons rehearsed here (British corpselike skin tone, rogue veins etc) but I always feel like people are staring at me thinking 'she's wearing nude tights, how naff'.

BUT I must disagree about sweaty bare feet in shoes. I find that sweaty bare feet stick to shoes better ? , I know, but bear with me ? and therefore I walk better in them and shoes don't slip. In tights, by contrast, because they're a bit slippery, my feet slide about and my toes bang into the ends and my heels end up blistered.

Nude fishnets, incidentally, simply ROCK.

Surely the amount of sweat absorbed by a flimsy bit of sheer nylon is negligible anyway? I just hate the weird shimmer they always have, and to be honest if you have anything that needs to be covered up nude tights are not going to do it. Unless they are the bandage-like ice skater variety which I wouldn't recommend.

I don't agree that bare legs look bad in summer, even in 'office' clothes unless you are a vair serious corporate type in a suit - I wear cotton dresses (not too girly or short) and pencil skirts/blouses in summer fabrics, and either court shoes or peep toes but not higher than 2 inches, it's not that formal an office.

Tights would look wrong. Bit of fake tan and a razor once a week, what's the problem?

Fake tan always looks orange. And don't tell me yours doesn't. It does.

It doesn't. It's Clarins and it's the merest whisper of a veil of a hint of it, just to top up my real tan from Corfu.

No, there's a big difference IME between the way your feet 'stick' in shoes if they're bare and the way they don't stick in tights.

Don't let the price tag fool you. It's orange.

Mind you, nothing wrong with nude tights in my humble opinion... and nothing is more depressing than women in opaques at this time of year, not matter what the weather.

Is it a time of year thing then, rather than a purely pragmatic weather thing? I do know and see women who all seem to get their legs out and go to short sleeves/sleeveless on the same day every spring/summer, and stick with it even through the British 'summer' when it's often Baltic. I always wonder if there's a law, or a rule, or a memo that I'm not party to.

I am 45 and have never even tried a pair on!

Fake tan or not, I need the protection of tights on cold, breezy summer days. Just spent a rainy night in a wedding in a really cold old castle - I tried to slide my napkin a bit downwards for some extra warmth during the dinner. Not a time and place where the bare-legged look would have done anybody any favors
[shiver]

I suspect most of the haters don't look as good as they think they do without them... and those that do, well to them!
It depends on the occasion - I work in the City and for a proper meeting, bare legs won't cut the mustard unless you are a supermodel who has just got back from 2 weeks in Mustique.

I also suspect that the haters don't feel the cold as much as I do. I live in trousers most of the time and can wear socks with my shoes, but occasionally I like to get my legs out.

I agree with a previous comment that the choice of shades is rather dire.

Love nude fishnets and especially nude micronets!

Yep nude fishnets are great.

Yes but, I'm 49 and frankly, even with the St Tropez on my pins, I will have to wear sheer nude tights for an upcoming special event because my skin is not what it used to be. Especially around the knees.....even with my exercise activities, I think it's not a good look on the over 45's. For young ladies, yes. Maybe.

DD wears them to school, I hate them they're what my Mother wore.
She doesn't like black in summer, it's cold in a short skirt and she can't wear sandals so needs to stop her shoes rubbing.

I like them, as long as they are NOT worn with open toe sandals. Ugh

Roll on the return of nude tights to fashion. My white, veiny, wrinkled, in-growing-hairy legs need all the help they can get.

Bare legs are only for the young, hairless and naturally tanned.

Speak for yourself kitty I am 46 in November and my legs look the same more or less as when I was 30! Shame about teh rest of me.

The ladies who are wearing the nude micronets, which ones are you getting? (I am vertically challenged so they can't be one size fits all because that size is never MY size!). I have had the Wolford Twenties ones but I would like something a bit more easy on the pocket!
TIA

M&S generally. I don't know if my nude fishnets are 'micronets' though; does that just mean the holes are small? The holes in mine are pretty small, come to think of it, not like classic/cliched 'hooker' black fishnets.

If you have pasty legs what are you meant to wear in summer? Leggings are being slagged off on another thread and now nude tights. Fake tan looks shit.