Review: Preston & York Sheer Pantyhose

A review of the Preson & York control top sheer pantyhose:

For those that aren’t familiar with this brand, it’s the store brand offered by Dillard’s department stores. Dillards is a fairly nice establishment, so I  was very curious to see how their private label hosiery brand would measure up.

I’m kind of picky about the color of my hosiery. Out of the package, these had a sort of traditional “tan” look to them. As they stretched out over my skin, they took on a nice, sheer consistency, almost disappearing on my legs. I have fair skin and these were not super obvious on my legs to the naked eye. However, there’s something about flash photography that makes them look a bit pasty and unnatural as you’ll see in this photo (left).

Sheer hosiery fabrics have a certain reflective quality to them. In real life, those reflections are coming from light sources at varying angles of attack.  When a flash photograph is taken, the light source is immediately next to the lens, or what will essentially be your “eye” into the scene. This causes the reflection to bounce off the fabric and straight into your eye, essentially. It’s like seeing a glare in a mirror.  That being said, take the photos with a grain of salt.  For more really geeky discussions about photography, visit my photography website.

Back to the hosiery at hand:  To the touch, these pantyhose have a reasonably silky feel. I’d give them a 7/ 10.  When rubbing your legs together, they fall short, being kind of rough. I’d give them a 5/10.

The control top was gently firm. It wasn’t too restrictive, but kept everything in place.

As for durability, I put them through a long night of attending a film screening, doing a photo shoot at a busy night club, and some afterpartying that went into the wee hours.  The reinforced toe held steady.  The fabric on the leg stayed intact, without any spontaneous holes developing, which was promising. Somehow a 1.5 inch hole developed in the very middle of the panty, right behind the gusset.  I still can’t figure out where that came from. It’s an odd thing to have happen to a control top, and rendered them unworthy for a second wearing.

Being a $9.00 pair of pantyhose and developing a hole on the first wearing is not good news for Preston & York. That puts their cost per wear at $9.00, which is a cost per wear that should merrit a far more luxurious pair of pantyhose. I’m sure I just got a bad pair, but even so – bad pair or not – this is a real world expense that any customer will have to be prepared for.

In summary: don’t waste your money. There are far superior pairs of hosiery to be had out there.

If Preston & York would like to send more pairs for additional evaluation, we’ll be happy to check them out and revise this review.