Our Review

With all the fancy designs, clever yarns and sophisticated knitting techniques that are on show in so many of the tights we are sent to review it is easy to forget that for most women plain sheer hosiery in black, barely black or a shade of tan is what “tights” means to them. 

The New York style comes from the Luisa Maria Lugli classic range and at 15 denier and 15% Lycra it s typical of the staple output of most hosiery companies. Flat seams in the panty and cotton gusset put it into the mid range and the pricing in there too, perfect for a woman who wants quality hosiery at a sensible price.  The three colours are unsurprisingly black and two shades of tan, one light and one dark.

First impressions of look and feel? Well right up there with the quality brands, smooth and soft to the touch and a nice shine on the finish.

A more detailed inspection confirms that these are sheer to waist tights with flat seams in the panty.  Sizes 1-3 have a cotton lined gusset and size 4 has a comfort gusset; the comfort gusset is a V shaped panel at the back slightly heavier than the rest of the garment. There is just the narrowest of reinforced bands either side of the seams and providing a transition to the waistband. The legs are shaped and finished with a reinforced toe.

A nice little detail is the “New York” Motif knitted in on each hip.  Less good, on our test sample at least, is the workmanship on the waistband.  Clearly each leg and the comfort gusset comes with its own piece of waistband attached, whoever sewed our test pair together made a pretty poor job of lining things up.

Sizing is spot on and there is plenty of stretch.  The comfort gusset does slightly spoil the fit so our recommendation would be to look at size 3 rather than size 4 unless you really are very full in the hips. Fit on the legs is good.

There is a nice sheen to the finish and from a distance very good colour density , only close to does the look fail a little as you can see the horizontal rows of stitches.  The overall look was let down by no less than 4 faults in the knitting, two on each leg, that show as dark horizontal lines.

The “New York” motif is sadly unreadable once the material is stretched, but being on the hip who will be reading it anyway?

Quality and value are the key considerations here.  Certainly the spec of these tights is way better than cheaper tights, but the quality of manufacture falls short of more expensive ones.  It is hard to see why we would buy this particular style in preference to others.  Classic 15 denier sheers is a tough part of the market where Luisa Maria Lugli New York Tights are a mid table also-ran.

24 June 2011

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