If you Google "lace tights" the first website listed is Bare Necessities, a long standing staple in the hosiery industry. A clever play on words as their company name surely helped them gain the fame and recognition necessary to rise to the top.
At the head of their page there is a banner that simply states
The Trend: Tights.
whether you prefer bright colors, wild prints
or classic neutrals, tights are so hot right now.
*to the left of this banner is a row of perfectly pointed toes, flexed calves, and immaculate legs, very obviously belonging to a bunch of mannequins somewhere, or on second thought, were probably sold separately, most likely never having belonged to a mannequin in the first place. Upon these scary, stiff, unblemished limbs were stretched ten different colors of tights, arranged in rainbow order, sort of. With purple misplaced, and several shades of gray thrown in, this strategic placement of colors was a very key element in the design you could tell. Probably discussed several times with many different important people in the Bare Necessities corporation.
Someone at this enterprise came up with this oh-so captivating banner idea and probably got a major bonus for it. Sat in some bourgeois conference room, with a mediocre power-point presentation and wowed everyone in the room with the final results. Meanwhile I'm thinking, as much as I love tights, and do believe that they are so hot, in general, let alone right now, I am also of the belief that Bare Necessities is extremely biased when stating this supposed fact. Trend:Tights.
Of course they want us to believe that they are leading us in the right direction when instructing us to purchase printed tights on their website, but in the wrong hands, the right pair of tights could end up putting the finishing touches on a major fashion disaster.
Life and Style has in the last few weeks stated that lace tights were indeed a fashion faux-pas, and depicted several celebrities wearing what they thought to be disastrous outfits that of course included lacey tights. I was headed to L.A. on a Greyhound with about five pounds of magazines next to me and my white lace Madonna like tights packed in my Betsey Johnson luggage, when I read this. I wanted to believe it wasn't true, since as much as I like to break rules, I do love to live by the rules of fashion. And we all know these rules are changing every minute, whole some are solid, and will never change. It's confusing, I know. I decided I would investigate the truth behind this statement later and proceed to wear the lace tights with full knowledge that they may indeed be a faux pas.
Later, after having successfully dodged all paparazzi trying to document my public display of lace on leg, I sat down in front of my computer to get behind the scoop on tights, and see what all my other resources had to say on the matter. I saw that in Paris this had become quite popular, and lace leggings fit in quite well with the trend of ultra flirty feminine hemlines that can be seen everywhere at the moment. Little bows, lots of blush, high heeled booties, this is the trend.
Also, lace incorporated in clothing design has become highly popularized, becoming the main fabric used in many high end collections that were available this fall/winter. Both Dolce and Gabbanna and Prada used a fair amount of extremely detailed, very fine lace in their latest collections. It is always such a classic look. Alexander McQueen used lace in several ways to enhance some of his latest pieces.
[Image from Harper's Bazaar Fall/Winter 2008 Runway Report]
Repeating the design of the lace in jewelry is a highly effective way of accessorizing these fashions. Notice how the chandelier earrings shown with the Alexander McQueen dress pictured above, repeats the pattern of the lace in the skirt. Whether or not the jewelry imitates the design of the lace, the jewelry should be large in scale to work with the scale of the pattern in the lace.
SO. In conclusion I have found that lace is hot, yes. And, as many around me agree, lace tights are still a must have, and are a fun way to make a very simple outfit look a bit more "material girl". We will continue to see lace everywhere, especially in designs brewed up by my favorite designer Betsey Johnson.
As for patterned tights, be careful how you mix them, and more importantly how you stretch them. You don't want to enlarge the image too much, which is easy to do. I would stick to solid colors, fishnets, nudes for office work, even nude fishnets are okay in many office settings. It is the traditional secretary/librarian look, which is why it keeps coming back, time after time. Pencil skirt of sorts, nude or sheer panty hose, button down shirt tucked in, cardigan, high heels, scarf tied around neck.
Recently taken off the ever-changing list of fashion faux-pas:
Tights with sandals. Yes. Believe it. Although it has been at the top of many lists of "don'ts" in fashion, we have now progressed to a time where it is acceptable, and even fashionable to wear tights with sandals. Maybe this is the only step we could have taken, considering that last year we popularized wearing socks with high heels.
I fear that the only obvious follow up to relinquishing tights and sandals from the faux pas list may be socks with sandals. I must say I will be nowhere near that trend if it ever hits. And, I will probably continue to wear the same styles of tights no matter what happens next in that industry either.
