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RALEIGH, N.C.
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Cydney Clemons'
4-month-old blog, Raleigh Street Fashion, celebrates
style and requires her to be a people watcher. So when
asked whether she's seen evidence of one of the season's
strongest trends, she has a story.
"Definitely,"
says Clemons. "I saw a girl the other day with a
really interesting pair. They were these textured
fishnets with this intricate pattern. She had them on
with a pinstripe skirt. I was so mad I didn't have my
camera."
It's been
building for a few seasons. Since the mid-'90s, women
boldly braved the cold with bare legs, free from those
saggy, easy-to-run pantyhose and inspired, some say, by
the "Sex and the City" ladies.
But last
season major designers began moving back to covered
legs. And at the fashion shows for this fall and winter
there were lots of brightly hued or intricately textured
tights, boots paired with floppy socks, tailored skirts
worn with opaque tights, even lingerie looks with
old-fashioned but sexy nylon stockings, says Edward
Miccinati, co-owner of
New York
-based StockinGirl, an online boutique. One of his
current best-sellers is the swiss dot pantyhose, popular
several years ago.
The
revived look may be OK by some folk.
"In
places like
Raleigh
,
Texas
,
Atlanta
, where there's a certain civility, people feel
completely dressed with some kind of legwear,"
Miccinati says.
The
runway may have spearheaded the revival, and the economy
could be helping to empower it.
"If
you're not able to really update your fall wardrobe,
using legwear is a good way to do it," says
Miccinati. "The price of entry is not as expensive
as other accessories." Wear the same little black
dress, but add a
$15
pair of lace hose, he says. Or shake up your workaday
black suit with some burgundy hose.
On the
same economical note, Clemons says, tights gives you the
opportunity, in our warmer climes, to take lighter
weight clothes through cooker weather, extending their
life.
And they
add some pizzazz.
That's
what attracts the customers at C.T. Weekends, says owner
Kristy Hipple
. The store, which sells tights from
Belgium
maker Cette, carries lots of colors, as well as a black
hose with hints of silver or gold. "For my
clientele, it's some patterns but it's about
color," she says. "It adds pop. It makes the
whole outfit or can enhance what you have."
Ahead of
the curve is
Liz Bradford
, a scientific illustrator who has 25 pairs of tights.
Her passion for them started when she was at
N.C. State University
. A participant in the Art to Wear fashion show, she'd
put her models in tights to add bold accents and make
short skirts "more appropriate." And then she
found herself falling for them. A friend who was moving
to
California
gave her 10 pairs.
Now she
has fishnets, lace, polka dots and a pair of faux
leather leggings so sleek they work like tights. She
owns some neon tights too; her bright yellow pair earned
a "Good Day, sunshine" greeting from a
passer-by.
"It's
another accessory, like necklaces and scarves," she
says. "I like to wear them with shorts and skirts
when it's cooler. I like black tights with my summery
shorts."
Don't get
the idea that the look is the domain of the young.
"We have a customer who's 75 that buys them,"
Hipple says.
You just
have to make the first step, says Miccinati. You don't
have to go with the pricey lines, he says,
"H&M, the Limited, the chains have variety at
fairly good prices." And if you feel uncomfortable,
just take them off."
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