by Megan Johnson

With the popularity of opaque tights dominating the runways in recent years, the last thing anyone expected to see strutting through Fashion Week was hosiery that reveals a woman’s skin tone. And while the opaque revolution isn’t dead in its tracks, traditional sheer hosiery has moved back in the limelight. The holy grail of fashionistas, Sarah Jessica Parker, was recently spotted wearing sheer black tights, and her atypical choice of leg wear was photographed in Harper’s Bazaar. At Paris Fashion Week in March, willowy models galloped down the runways in sheer hosiery at Stella McCartney, Azzaro, Viktor and Rolf, as well as several other designers’ shows, demonstrating that sheer can be an alternative to the color-blocked style of opaque leg wear. 

While the glamour (and slimming capabilities!) of a black opaque tight is obviously ideal, sheer pairs can be equally as glam (See any 1940’s movie star). Top of the line hosiery brand Wolford is the epitome of luxe leg wear, but at $30 to 50 a pair, a lot of shoppers will run the other way screaming. Powerhouse company Spanx sells some of the most flattering pairs of hosiery a woman can ever go near (and they can also make your bum look an entire size smaller). But if your wallet isn’t thick enough to drop that kind of cash on tights, what’s a girl to do? To put it simply, it’s your drugstore to the rescue. L’eggs brand sheer pantyhose retail for about $5 a pair, and the sheer colors could be mistaken for designer hosiery that you picked up at Saks or Neimans. Though cheaper hosiery does tend to get runs much faster, the product’s low cost doesn’t make you cringe if you have to throw them away. So give your opaque colors a bit of a rest with the upcoming spring season, and let your skin shine through. It just might be a stroke of sheer genius.

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