We all know about the cheap store brands of pantyhose and tights…  Take a moment and look in the photo credits in any fashion magazine, and you’ll see some very high end hosiery being used. Falke, Gerbe, Wolford… many of these high end European hosiery brands are very expensive. Are they worth it?  Is there any way that it’s even remotely sane to spend $49 on a pair of tights?  Read what blogger Tracie Egan Morrissey has to say about it:

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Worth It: Keep It Tight

by Tracie Egan Morrissey  at http://jezebel.com/5887402/worth-it-keep-it-tight

Much unlike many a magazine editor who recommends you buy all sorts of crap that they most likely got for free, your Jezebel staff doesn’t get jack shit (other than books, unsolicited). And that’s how it should be. But on our own time, in our personal lives, we still buy stuff. So this is Worth It, our recommendation of random things that we’ve actually spent our own money on. These are the things we buy regularly or really like, things we’d actually tell our friends about. And now we’re telling you.

Yes, Wolford, the Austrian hosiery brand is expensive, with tights averaging about $50 a pair—but hear me out! As someone who wears tights about four or five times a week, I need them to be durable because I spent the better part of my 20s ducking into Duane Reade to frantically grab a pair of tights after discovering—always at the last minute—that I’d already torn through the cheapies I was wearing. Now I’m simply too old for that shit. I have a kid. I don’t have time for pit stops and running-around nonsense. Every. Second. Counts.

I keep a rotation of about five pairs of Wolford tights, varying in thickness and color (although my preference is either black Velvet de Luxe 66 or Mat Opaque 80). It’s a practice I began back in 2007, when I purchased my first pair—which finally just got a run in them last week. They lasted five fucking years. Can you believe that? And I haven’t been kind to them, either. I’ve traveled in them, crawled around on floors (don’t ask!) in them, literally walked miles in them without shoes, and even subjected them to my annoying-ass dog who jumps up on me and scratches at my legs whenever I walk through the door. That’s a lot of wear with no tear.

But beyond pure utilitarian purposes, I like Wolford tights because I passionately hate tights that are too “shiny.” You know how when tights look too Spandex-y and get that shiny line down them? Wolford tights are truly matte, truly opaque. This is one of those cases in which you get what you pay for.