First impressions count for a lot, and having seen the picture of these tights above; we were ready to wax lyrical. But there was no first impression.

We know Trasparenze as the leading making of sheer fashion hosiery and as a maker of great sheer tights, too, but this is entirely different, not just control top tights but full shaping tights with a 40 denier semi-opaque leg.

Zohara sticks to a relatively simple recipe, one size, 120 denier plain tights with a printed pattern. Simple but effective....

All Zohara tights are based on the same construction, with only the printed design changing from one to another, so for details on the tights themselves, take a look at our review of Zohara Tights with Flower Print.

We were delighted to see that our latest box of samples we got contained several samples from Zohara. And not just because it finally meant that we could claim to have reviewed hosiery from A-Z rather than just A-Y.

None of us knew what to expect from Solidea’s range of fashion support hosiery, least of all Miss Saba, who had never worn any sort of support tights before. She was an instant convert, describing these as the most comfortable tights she had ever worn.

There was a time when £21.25 was right at the very top of the price range for tights and support hosiery came from your doctor as was as sexy as leprosy, but times change.

We like to think that we have learned a little about tights over the years we have been reviewing. But compression hosiery is something we do not see much of.

Compression hosiery is just for old ladies with oedema, and varicose veins, isn’t it? Well, no, actually it isn’t! What is true is that very many of those old ladies would not have those conditions now if earlier in their lives they had worn some sort of compression hosiery to help their circulation.

At first glance, you could be forgiven for seeing Solidea as another Italian fashion hosiery brand, but a closer look at the packet pictured above soon tells you it is not. Firstly, the word “compression” and then little symbols on the picture show the compression levels up the leg.