Are black opaque nylons really frumpy fashion?

[kranberrie]

I read an article in the Guardian on Saturday that stated that black 40/60D hoisiery is "out" and fancy colours and lacey ones are "in" for the party season. The statement was backed up with statistics of sales growth of colourful nylons and lacey ones with a decline of sales in 40/60D black.
I Google researched more and found that this ditching of classic black extends to the workplace and social settings. Looking around my office and offices of clients I visit, I'm shocked to find that I'm almost the only "frump" in standard class opaque black legs.
I can't bring myself to go jazzy colours or lacey. I had a big clearout of my tights draw about a month ago - ironically in my vast collection I had old red, navy, green (why?) and lacey tights (mostly unworn) - they got chucked. Those still in packets and unworn are now in the local Scope shop - maybe I should buy them back.
I'm extra miffed because the clearout coincided with a £150 spending spree on good quality black opaques.
Maybe I should buy trousers and never wear tights again.
Am I the last living fan of black opaques? - I think they are sexy, stylish, warm and practical.
What next - shoes out and only boots?

Talk about the ultimate scratchy fabric 🤣 Although the names of the shades would be cool - oak, ebony, veneer

@NunyaBeeswax
They were v poplar on TT
These are what DD has

amzn.eu/d/bjvjPtm

I’m with you - I’m not sure I could ever wear 80 deniers

Was it Jess Cartner-Morley? I like her but she's always been weird about tights.

Markies have these every year.

Maybe, but I think the term opaque was invented later. I remember thicker tights in the 70s in the pre Lycra era

I’m in London, lots of people wear opaques. Totally depends on age and job setting - few high court judges are wearing pink lace tights. 25 year olds in publishing or IT might.

I'd go with classic

TV Times, Lesley Ash in Cat’s Eyes. Tartan tights, I was a student aged person and couldn’t afford them

I’m strongly in the camp that you need to consider colours of your clothes and footwear. However fashionable the colourful tights were, going out in a mustard dress, black boots and red tights would never look good imo.

I can’t stand Jess whatshername.

My tuppence worth:

A pair of tights is not in itself frumpy

A woman is not a frump because of a pair of tights

I remember being chased down the street in 1988 by some girls desperate to know where my black opaques were from, so it feels like they must have been a relatively new thing. At school in 6th form (86-87) we mostly had long knitted thigh high cable knit socks, or cream or burgundy cable knit tights.

Next usually do cable knit tights for women

I used to wear lots of patterned tights with pencil skirts for work, but it’s hard to find pencil skirts now.

I like sheer black with polka dots with a black mini.

Lace tights need a longer skirt imo

I used to wear loads of fuchsia and burgundy tights in the 90s, but I’m not sure it’s a look I’d want to return to

Marks have black opaques with pearls on. I want them.

Indeed and she thinks everyone wears heels. She must know enough models to know that even they don’t wear heels. I’m tall so I don’t want to be looking down any further over my 5 ft friends

I remember when opaques first came in-around the time Kylie, Lisa Stansfield and Betty Boo were all wearing velvet hot pants with theirs!
Properly opaque ones were really hard to find where I lived unless you went to Miss Selfridge and they were pricy, like £10 a pair.
I remember when ski pants were the big thing too 🤦‍♀️
Those fleece lined tights look fantastic. @wwyd2021medicine .
I’ve seen very fake tanned youngsters in skirts with American tan tights to match. They look like they’re off to dance class but my teens assure me they’re not!

It wasn't her

Colour, lace and jazzy prints: tights are latest low-cost fashion statement https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2024/dec/06/colour-lace-and-jazzy-prints-tights-are-the-latest-low-cost-fashion-statement?CMP=share_btn_url

The term might have come later but thick winter tights were very much the norm when I was at secondary school [1971 to 1977]

Ooo so retro - that one in the black tights is me as a student. The jacket was my brother’s though and we didn’t call all jackets with lapels blazers in those days

I've been there and done that with the coloured and patterns. Twice i think actually.

Once you've seen a fashion come and go once (or twice!) before, it feels weird and boring to do it again.

Plain black is classy, makes everyone's legs look good and sets off the rest of what you're wearing nicely, be it tiny mini skirt or voluminous dress.

Like the body suit vest things (fiddling round your fanny in the loos trying to do the damn thing back up) and the loooow rise jeans with a zip so short it was laughable. Done it once, see it coming round again and don't want to revisit, ta.

By the way, a word of warning to anyone who hasn't worn patterned tights:

Unless your thighs have the same circumference as your calves, the pattern will be stretched visibly wider and more transparent from the knee up.

Yep.
Another reason to avoid!

I like black opaque. I don't care whether they're in fashion or not, and neither should you, OP.

Re legs above the knee - I don’t do much of that as a tall 60 yr old. Back in the day though 😀

I think I've still got my coloured and patterned tights from the 2000s. Is it that long ago? Teal was def a thing. And kind of burgundy fushia. I wore them for a bit, but they always seemed a bit too eccentric History teacher. But I teach English.

Back again, are they? I worked for a boot company for 10 years and remember wearing a black knitted dress, purple tights and black over the knee boots in 2011!

I'm a huge fan of patterned tights but I don't often see others wearing them, especially not geometric or animal print like I like.

I wear them like this with shorts.

PP above was correct that it's an expensive hobby. Tights rip easily, even good quality ones. If anyone wanted to go for patterned tights, I recommend ones that aren't formed of fishnet type material. The ones with tiny holes snag to buggery.

Who cares what people say is in? Just wear what you like.