Are you questioning why we wear hose at all or the fact that it's pantyhose.
They've been around for decades so it's nothing new or fashionable.

I am questioning why exactly we wear hose?

Depending where you live, to protect from the cold. Also, as mentioned in the thread above, not all bare legs are attractive, it all depends on your take on it.
For me, if I'm wearing a dressy outfit, it looks better if I'm wearing hose.

mitchdesj--thanks. I was always thinking there must be some medical reason for this. Just followed wearing from many years without knowing the actual reason.

I also think legs with hose look better. Then there is the work place. Many, many companies require their employees to wear some sort of leg coverings. No bare legs in other words. NancyLouise

For my legs, hose looks better than natural. Then there is the warmth factor for our refrigerated offices. Whenever I see bare legs in an office environment, I think it looks so.... unfinished. Bare legs are only good when you're young - under 26.

I think that most of us wore hose/panti hose because of modesty, not letting our bare legs show! That was back in the 50's and 60's. Alas, where DID our modesty go? LOL
Salena

No regular hose from April/May to late September, and rarely after that. Self tanner is a girl's best friend. No dark hose in spring and summer. I like tights with a skirt during the winter months. I just don't like the fake look of pantyhose, and I have tried every color including travel buff which is the model's choice of hose color.

Also, hose look terrible with sandals unless you buy the toeless/footless and even then, they don't look attractive regardless of how great you think they make your legs look. It looks odd that your legs are one color and your feet/toes are another.

Just my $.02.

I wear pantyhose because they give my legs a more polished, finished look when I get dressed up. It's just more professional and they look great on. What is so fake about them? For spring I wear nude (travel buff) or white, nude in the summer, black for autumn and nude or black for winter. Oh, and this is for you labmomma, sandals do not look terrible with pantyhose. By sandals I am talking about heeled strappy dress sandals for evening wear, not flat sandals for casual wear. (I just want to make sure we are on the same page) A sheer nude pantyhose with sandalfoot toe looks great with any dress sandal whether it be New Years Eve or the Fourth of July and that my $.02 worth. :)

We will have to agree to disagree. As I mentioned, I have tried the travel buff color. A very good friend is a model, and travel buff is the color used on the catwalk at shows when hose are used, which is very rarely nowadays. Of all the hose colors available, travel buff is the look I dislike the most.

Many years ago I was a bridesmaid in my SIL's wedding (black tie). All of the attendants wore travel buff with navy dresses. I look at the pictures now and wonder what were we thinking? My MIL also modeled professionally for years, and chose the hose color for the attendants. We all wore them for uniformity. Hose were definitely mandatory for the wedding party as it was black tie, but the look of the very elegant understated dresses were ruined by the hose color.

I have seen women in sandals (dress/formal) with the hose without the toes. I think it makes a very "geriatric" look. I don't mind the very sheer jet black hose with a formal dress in the cold months, but otherwise for me it is no hose.

Most womens' legs look great with a little sunless tanner and a great pedicure. Terrible veins are another matter. Women afflicted with them have little choice but to wear hose.

As for professionalism, I work in a very professional environment, and will say there are some situations when hose are a "must". Most of my female collegues will opt for a formal pant suit for those situations rather than don the hose in order to wear a suit skirt. With the exception of that instance, I think a leg sans hose is much more natural look, especially in a social setting such as a wedding during the summer months.

I responded to this post as I just had this particular issue with my mother with regard to an upcoming summer wedding. I convinced her to try it both ways prior to the wedding. A good pedicure and a quality sunless tanner on her legs was definitely the better look. The toeless hose with the sandal made her look much older. My mother is a very young 72 (and I don't mean tart-young), so she was concerned that no hose would give her a "trying to look too young" look. Once she saw how great the dress looked with the sunless tanner and no hose, she was very pleased and comfortable with no hose. What woman wants a binding extra piece of clothing on a hot day?

My own opinion is that hose make a woman look much older when worn with a sandal, as well as give a very dated look. If you wear the hose for tummy control, there are so many underpinning options available now, they make control top pantyhose obsolete.

I guess it is just a matter of personal preference. I think if you like hose, go for it. However, I don't feel it is necessarily a better look for everyone.

Thank you for your thoughts on pantyhose, labmomma. Like you said though, we will have to agree to disagree. Everyone has different tastes and styles and if going without hose is what makes you happy who am I to argue? You're doing what is best for you.

I on the other hand (as you know fully by now) like wearing pantyhose and like the way they look on my legs and I do not find them uncomfortable at all even on hot summer days. I guess it was how I was raised. My parents were professional ballroom dancers and as such my mother always wore pantyhose and since I followed in her footsteps for a good number of years, I too always wore hose when I danced. You have to understand there were recitals and many, many weekends on the road and it seemed my mother and I were always wearing beautiful dresses and gowns, which meant wearing pantyhose underneath.

I did not dance a whole lot after college but started a new career working as an administrative assistant with a major firm in a professional office setting. Back then the dress code was very strict, which did not bother me in the least, as I always had a nice collection of dresses and skirts to wear anyhow. Plus, pantyhose was required. Eventually, the dress code was relaxed, as it has been in most places, but after years of dressing up, I found I just couldn't dress down. Call it what you will, but I liked wearing tailored suits / skirts / dresses with pantyhose and heels and still do to this day. I just wish there were more other women who felt the same way as I. It seems as time goes on the dress codes get more and more relaxed to the point of some of the younger girls coming to work in sundresses and flip-flops. That's just tasteless for an office setting and yet they get away with it. So now you know my story and hopefully know a little more of why I like what I like. :)

nancy - your dance experiences sound wonderful. What a great mother/daughter way to bond. I have two left feet:)). However, my daughter has danced since she was 3 and loves it.

I agree with the office attire heading downhill. We have secretaries, file clerks and other support staff in my office who show up in shorts, flip flips despite a very strict and explicit dress code policy given at hire and circulated via email in May of each year. I don't know what they are thinking. For that matter, I have seen several male collegues show up for work in khakis and/or jeans and a polo with an emblem (not a tiny RL emblem). They don't even bother to keep a suit and tie on the back of their door? No, they run home and quickly change in the event they are called to court unexpectedly.

I have several very nice suits that are jackets and pants. With a nice blouse and the right (tasteful) jewelry, it works nicely. I did work for one firm just out of school where no pants were allowed for any female employees. I also have suits with jackets and a dress or jackets and a skirt. As you can imagine, the suits with the dress or skirt require a pair of hose under certain circumstances, but I still hate wearing them.

Also, do you enjoy watching the Dancing With the Stars program that has come to ABC? We love it and follow from day one until a winner is chosen.

labmomma, yes I have many fond memories of my younger days dancing with my mother. I cherished following in her footsteps all those years and yes, we did have a very special relationship because of it. The dresses and gowns we wore were simply elegant and to be able to see so much of the country at such a young age was truly amazing.

I suspect the office attire heading downhill problem is global. It seems both women and men no longer make the effort to look their best while at work. I work with fourteen other women and only two of them wear pantyhose on a daily basis like myself. The others come to work in whatever they feel like wearing and the younger girls cannot seem to do without flip-flops. I agree with you on your thoughts on wearing suits. With the right blouse and jewelry they do work quite nicely. I have several pant suits with jackets that I wear with pantyhose underneath and pumps in the colder months of the year.

I just love Dancing With the Stars! Exquisite taste you have! Even though I do not dance much any longer I highly enjoy watching others perform. I'm just a dancer at heart I guess.

I think I remember reading somewhere that panty hose was originally developed because of the rising popularity of shorter skirts. It was still considered taboo for women to show bare leg, so they made panty hose to cover it up. It's kind of stupid, I know, but that was the way things were in those days!

~Polly~

Here is a link that might be useful: GHD Hair Straightener

Before pantyhose, women wore nylons which were bought in pairs of course. Usually nylon stockings were bought in basically one favorite shade. If you got a run in your nylons, you always had spare stockings to change. Then, manufacturers realized that if they made pantyhoses, they could turn a bigger profit (which they did for years), because if you got a run in your pantyhose, you had to get another whole pair of pantyhose and not just change one leg.

As to whether to wear any legcoverings, my opinion is that nylons/pantyhose gives a more professional look to an outfit and should be worn for evening affairs and the office. I think it depends a lot on your lifestyle. For informal gatherings, especially during the summer, bare legs are acceptable. I think that with the downslide of today's culture, it's no surprise that the way people dress has become more and more lax. It's something like seeing a man in an office setting in a suit but without socks.

There are few women who really have shapely attractive legs (no flab, no veins) to get away without nylons (they should look at themselves front and back in full length mirrors - sitting, bending, etc). Nylons glamorize the average legs with a slight sheen and support. It's one of those finishing touches that make a difference.

A little story - There was one young woman in our office who was about 20 lbs overweight and wore such a short skirt that when she sat she should have put something on her lap to cover her visible underwear - and she wasn't wearing pantyhose. Her top was longish, so the bottom of her top was longer than her skirt. When it was brought up in conversation, her remark was that a lot of people said she looked cute dressing that way - she was so proud. Anyway - to make a long story short - her supervisor asked her to go home and "put on some decent clothes". (Now there a career clue!)

To each his own!