academichic

In last year’s Fashion 101 on tights, I offered an example of how merely switching out tights could change the entire appearance of an outfit. This year, I thought I’d try out the same idea again, but with a different dress and shoe combination.

(As an aside, I really love the substantial ponte knit and demure shape of this little gray sheath, but it’s significantly shorter than what I usually wear. I don’t think I’ll be teaching in this dress until I let the hem down, but even for running about town over the weekend I felt…abbreviated.)

In any case, onward. The photo above shows the gray dress paired with gray tights. The monochrome scheme does mitigate my hem length issues, and I love how the browns of the belt and boots warm everything up. A touch more interesting than wearing black tights, but still cool and simple.

Next up, patterned tights. Meh. This is probably my least favorite look, not because I don’t like my patterned tights, but because I think they were the wrong value for this medium gray sheath. I think a darker patterned tight would have worked a little better, no?

Given my love of grellow, I definitely wanted to try pairing this soft gray dress with punchier saffron tights. I love the idea of these tights in theory, but sometimes when I wear them I get a little self conscious about maybe looking like I have Muppet legs. Here, though, I think they work well with the warm cognac boots to create a little bit of punch without breaking up my leg line too harshly.

I think this gray and red combination is one of my favorite iterations. Maybe it’s because I feel like I’m channeling some Tania from What Would a Nerd Wear and her “gred”. There’s something classic but fresh and the tights look purposeful, not like a tacked on afterthought.

Finally, blue tights. I was prepared to not like this…but I really do. I don’t usually think of cobalt as being a “spring” color, but there’s a lot of it around this year and I think it’s a little unexpected with the gray and navy.

Do you have a favorite?

Sources:

Dress – Banana Republic Outlet
Cardi – thrifted
Bird pin – Kissing Toads on Etsy
Belt – Ralph Lauren
Tights – TJMaxx
Shoes – vintage, thrifted

Endnotes:

Happy Valentine’s Day! As the title of my post indicates, I’m wearing red tights today as an homage to Valentine’s Day and to kick off our current theme week – Tights Week!

I’m not usually one to dress to “match” a holiday, but I just couldn’t help pulling out this pair of red tights for today’s outfit. Just like I couldn’t help but make some red paper hears and red string garlands to hang around my kitchen over the weekend. And I couldn’t resist baking heart-shaped Swedish cookies on Saturday. Is this what they call nesting? I swear, this is the most I’ve ever gone out for Valentine’s Day.

To keep the holiday-inspired look to a minimum, I kept the rest of the outfit in blue and black. I just added that extra bit of red with a tiny bird and (red) flower brooch to pull the color of the tights into the upper part of the outfit.

Also, a side note on the cardigan – I thrifted this item just a little while ago while being in my Emma Pillsbury induced style coma. I loved the polkadots, the puffy sleeves and the cropped fit of it. But no matter how much I tried to convince myself otherwise, this cardigan is just too big on me. Buttoned, or worn open, it just makes me look wide and boxy. So my solution is to wear it with the sides overlapping to create a snugger fit. I then used a belt to cinch it together and voila – a perfect fit. I also liked the look of this more structured and austere belt to tone down the ‘playfulness’ and ‘whimsicalness’ of the cardigan.

But back to tights now. All of this week we’ll be discussing our different tights wearing strategies, such layering tights, incorporating pattern or using various color tights and incorporating them into the outfit. To see all our previous creative tights looks, check out our new Flickr set on Tights. And feel free to leave a comment if you have any specific questions you’d like addressed during this week’s feature! ~ S.

8 March 2010 – Tight Swap, originally uploaded by academichic.

Sources:

• Navy dress: Target
• Earrings: Honolulu swap meet
• Booties: Civico 10, via DSW

• Blue green tights: Hue
• Dark red tights: Hue
• Purple tights: Target
• Yellow tights: Gap
• Patterned tights: Celeste Stein

End Notes:

This week we’re exploring methodologies behind thoughtful tights usage, and for my tutorial I thought I’d demonstrate how dramatically tights can change an entire outfit.

I started with a simple dress in a soft neutral — navy — as my base, paired with my booties (or are they heeled oxfords?) which are a wonderfully indeterminate neutral somewhere between brown and gray. First up, blue green tights to create a monochromatic color scheme. The result is a trim, lean appearance, with dress, tights, and shoes all blending together for an illusion of length. It’s a sophisticated pairing that keeps the attention primarily on the dress.

Maroon tights were up next. I love how this deep, dark red adds richness to the navy blue, creating what we call a two-thirds color combination, that is, two colors — red and blue — from a triad. Because both pieces are darker shades of primary hues, they avoid looking like a cartoon or sports team pairing. While still sophisticated and slimming overall because of their relatively well-matched darkness to the dress, the maroon tights add a bit more pizazz to the look.

…

Bright purple tights create an analogous color combination with the dress. But, because the purple is lighter and more saturated than the navy, they “pop” more dramatically than the maroon tights did. As such, they give the dress a freshness that the other two tights-and-dress combinations did not have.

…

Ah yes, bright yellow tights. Or saffron, I suppose, if we’re getting technical. Like the maroon tights, this punchy pair creates a two-thirds color combination with the dark blue dress. But unlike the maroon tights, this yellow is a much lighter and more saturated shade, and they become the focal point of the outfit. As such, they transform a basic navy dress into a bold, lively “look.”

…

And then…patterned tights. After learning that this week was tights week, my sweet mother-in-law sent me this pair of swirly pink, navy, pale blue, orange, and red patterned tights. (She snagged them on clearance at Dillards; there’s a much better selection in stores than online, as is the case for stores like Gap and Banana Republic right now, I’ve found. Online, I’m drooling over some pairs of patterned tights in Anthropologie’s clearance: the Locket tights are marked down to just under $7, for example, and I would spring for the lace tights as well. And Bare Necessities has quite a few fabulous prints and textures on sale now as well.)

…

My husband isn’t sure what to think, but I’ve grown rather attached. Despite the admittedly wild overall print, the navy background of the tights helps to ground their connection to the dress. Sure, they’re a little wacky, but with these retro-inspired shoes and a curvy dress they add some spunk rather than scream “certifiably crazy”! I’d also be interested to try these tights on with this dress and my Steve Madden boots, thus mitigating the effect of the overall pattern going wobbly on my calves and ankles.

…

I like all of these combinations for different reasons and can see myself wearing each for particular occasions. I probably would not, for example, wear the saffron and navy combination to an academic conference, but I would wear it to a party or, let’s be honest, for a slow day in the library. Do you tend to use tights to add a pop of color or pattern to an outfit or to create an unbroken leg line? How do you decide what color to pull on?

Contemporary fashion theorists and historians commonly agree that fashion — all the clothes humans have worn throughout history — is comprised of a limited set of forms that get repeated with variations over time. Such an argument is quite compelling when one considers the history of tights. Men from the Middle Ages through the seventeenth century wore close-fitting (that is, “tight”) hose under doublets, and since then tightly knit legwear has enjoyed various incarnations.

Tights — as we’re defining them for the purpose of this Fashion 101 — are the heavier cousins of pantyhose, clocking in at over 40 denier (the linear mass density of fibers, of course). Brightly colored, textured, and patterned tights have been quite common in women’s fashion for the last few years, and if the runways of Fall 2010 New York Fashion Week are any indication, bold legwear will remain popular for at least another season.

Recommended:

Now is the time to grab tights in patterns or hues that you might not normally gravitate towards since they’re currently deeply marked down. E. has been taking full advantage of winter clearance sales for that very purpose. So has her always-generous mother-in-law.

Course Goals:

After completing this course in tights, students will be able to:

• demonstrate an understanding of how different tights can change the appearance of an entire outfit
• utilize tights to create the illusion of a (very) long leg line
• utilize brightly colored tights to create more complex color outfit color schemes, without looking like a Dr. Seuss character
• utilize patterned or textured tights
• demonstrate appropriate pairings of tights with open toed shoes
• demonstrate the effective layering of tights to create new colors or color combinations
• judiciously employ boldly patterned tights while avoiding the appearance of an eight year old girl

And because the Midwest weather has a wicked sense of humor, of course Academichic central will be experiencing unseasonably warm temperatures this week. Nevertheless, A. will do what she can given meteorological constraints, E. will be posting from her Spring Break visit to New York where it should still be a bit cooler, and S. will be returning to Germany where, indeed, it is still tights weather. If temperatures are still chilly in your neck of the woods, play along with us this week. And, as always, we’d love to see pictures of your best look with tights!