Ladies Tights – The History of Hosiery

One fashion item never to go out of fashion are ladies tights. Fashions change regularly but tights will remain a constant in many women’s wardrobes, in some form or another. Since the invention of the material nylon and the rise in popularity of nylons during the 1960′s women all over the world have relied on tights for their everyday wear.

Nylon became a cheaper alternative to silk for the manufacture of tights and stockings but nowadays they are made using various affordable and comfortable materials. In the 1950′s stockings tended to go baggy with fine wrinkles appearing at the ankles but nowadays the addition of Lycra prevents this and adds stretch to keep our tights up! We have even gone one step further now and developed whole ranges of shaping tights, which help to shape and tone those extra wobbly bits that we’d all like streamlining.

A classic and popular material for making warm winter tights is wool, which is comfortable, cosy and comes in many different colours. Wool tights are the perfect way to look contemporary but stay warm during the colder months and there is such a vast array of colours available now that you can wear a different pair every day of the week.

When the weather warms up but not enough to bare all, good old trusty opaque tights are ideal. Far removed from the days of sheer nylons, opaque tights have been an essential item for women for the last few decades. They’re available in loads of different deniers and many varying colours.

The denier is measured by the thickness of the weave of the material that the tights are made from and the higher the denier the thicker the tights. Opaque tights are generally 40 denier or above, while sheer tights range from 5 denier to 30 denier usually, but often have re-inforced toes and tops.

Sheer tights are made from many different materials also, as the denier is decided by the thickness of the weave and not the material they’re made from.

Whether you prefer opaque tights, support tights, sheer tights, coloured tights, footless tights, or suspender tights there are so many different tights out there to choose from that the list is almost endless.

If you feel that tights aren’t very sexy you can always wear their alternative, hold ups or stockings. Hold ups (sometimes called stay ups or thigh highs) and stockings are much sexier than tights and often chosen by women for those special occasions. Just like ladies tights there are now loads of variations of colour and material so you can get exactly what you need to wear with every outfit.

Fashions may change and the manufacture of materials will advance but ladies tights will remain a staple item in most women’s wardrobes!