Hosiery makes a comeback

By ADRIENNE JOHNSON MARTIN

RALEIGH, N.C. - 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."