Our Review

At first glance there is nothing to set these tights apart from other sheer to waist tights, the straight legs are finished with a reinforced toe, the panty has a cotton lined gusset and flat seams and there is a narrow finger band to give a strong transition to the waistband.   They feel smooth, soft and strong and could be any 15 denier sheer from a quality manufacturer in the £6-£8 range, so what sets them apart and justifies the £15.95 price tag?

Well of course it is the pattern of hearts that creates the back seam detail.  There are 40 separate red sequin like hearts up the back of each leg; each one about 6mm wide and around the same deep.  The legs are unshaped, it our guess is that this is to allow a machine to apply the hearts in one when the leg is stretched over a former.

The sheer strength and quality of these tights is apparent as soon as you start to stretch them over your legs, they almost feel like light support tights.  Once on they fit ever so well following every curve.  Sizing is accurate but not generous and on the subject of sizing we must congratulate Levante for using Medium/Tall/X-Tall and catering for ladies up to leggy 6’1”

The finish on the leg is matt with even colour a perfect background to show off the red hearts.

Which brings us to the hearts.  Here it all goes a bit wrong, if you have big feet the the bottom heart will be under your heel and the next two inside your shoe making for both discomfort and a short life expectancy for the tights.  The last heart was only a little way above Stacey’s knee so with a shorter skirt or shorts the top of the seam will be clearly visible.  A great idea ruined by very poor execution.

Aristoc had similar issues with their Chrystalli Tights, and in both cases their own model in the packet picture had a pair where the seam started and finished in the right place.  It does make us suspect that the pair photographed by the manufacturer was a hand finished preproduction sample and not from the production run... understandable in that they need the artwork and the tights ready at the same time but it is unfortunate that the packet does not accurately reflect the contents.

31 August 2010