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Our Review
A quick look through our recent reviews lets you see what an exciting time it is to be looking at hosiery with high fashion designs from the likes of Wolford, Oroblu, Max Mara, Falke and Trasparenze gracing our review pages... with some pretty high prices too! So today we have a complete change, not an international brand but the in house brand of the German Karstadt department store chain; and not a fancy design in sight, just plain sheer material at an everyday price.
40 denier is right on the border between sheer and opaque, more the look of the former but towards the weight of the latter. In our opinion the optimum weight for a really glossy look, but done badly the look can be slightly plastic, so how have Karstadt done?
Sheer to waist, lightly reinforced toe, shaped at the heel, flat seams and an unreinforced gusset most of the qualities we like to see in a quality sheer. Just tiny issues with the alignment of the two halves at the waistband but quality wise this is hosiery up there with the major brands like Kunert or Falke and not far short of Wolford . (The misaligned waistband probably would cause these tights to be graded “B” by Wolford to be sold in sales at more than €6.00).
There are 5 sizes but no size chart on the packet. Two reasons for this, firstly they use the standard German sizing system so size IV is 44-46 and secondly being “own brand” hosiery the sizes are displayed in store.
German hosiery can generally be relied upon to be both well made and accurately sized, this style does not disappoint. The sizing is perhaps on the generous side of accurate with plenty of stretch. The Lycra that provides the stretch also makes for an excellent second skin fit.
Colour is perfectly even and there is a distinct silky sheen to the finish. Heavy enough to cover the imperfections of your skin yet sheer enough to not to look like a glossy opaque, thankfully not having the plastic mannequin leg look.
A real competitor to the likes of Falke Seidenglatt 40, and if you happen not to live in German it is the Falke style we would suggest to get the same look and feel. Top quality semi-opaque hosiery.
23 January 2011
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