Monday, March 12, 2012

Welcome Spring ! Done with the black tights

I always find it a bit of a dilemma deciding when to start wearing tights in the fall and when to stop in the spring. Like most girls I see in NYC, I have a winter uniform of black tights, black skirt and some sort of blouse. Or black tights and a dress.

I like to buy my tights at Duane Reade,
'cause I'm classy like that.  Don't knock
the Kushyfoots if you haven't tried them.
Save for a few weeks during the transition from tights to bare legs, I really don't ever wear pants to work. Mainly I have a hard time finding pants that fit right, aren't too frumpy looking or too big or too long (I'm barely 5'3"). Plus - the length for wearing pants with heels at work means that they are too long to wear with flats coming and going from work. Does anyone else have this problem?? I cannot walk to work in my heels, but my heel-length pants are too long to wear with flats; the ends of the pants drag along in the street. So I stick with skirts for work. Which means covering my legs with tights to keep them warm and hidden in the winter.

However, there are usually a few weeks in the spring when I'm ready to be done with the black tights but my poor pale wintery legs aren't ready to see the public light of day quite yet. So I will do pants to work during these transition weeks -- but that's about it. (Oh and I never, ever wear pants in the summer  even on the weekends - bare legs all summer long is the way to go!)

But all winter long to work it is black tights. Black tights. Black tights. Every day. And also when going out at night on the weekends.  So when spring rolls around, I'm usually very ready to put the black tights away.

I also like American Apparel Opaque size XS "panty hose" (read: tights)
This pose is giving me a back ache, however. Who stands like that??
For whatever reason I feel the transition to and from black tights has to be cold turkey both ways - no waffling back and forth between tights / no tights. And a big pet peeve of mine is when I miscalculate one way or another and I'm stuck in the freezing cold with bare legs in late October when everyone else around me is cozy looking in tights or boots or WORSE when I'm stuck sweating to death in black tights on a warm day in the spring when everyone else is summery looking and bare legged. That makes me grumpy. 

So it is important to gauge the seasons change carefully.  To me, putting the black tights away for good means Spring is here. There is no more risk of snow. It is time to wear more color, less black. Summer is around the corner. 

That usually happens around mid to late April in NYC. But this year we've had the strangest most non-existent winter ever. And, I was super grumpy to find myself in black tights (and a cashmere sweater no less) last Thursday, when it was a beautiful sunny 70 degrees and everyone else looked like a breath of fresh springy air in their bare legs and spring clothes.

(I blame NY1 for the wardrobe misstep by the way, they said it was going to be a cool and windy day??! I normally love Weather on the Ones. How did they get it so wrong last Thursday?) 

I got so sweaty and worked up about it Thursday that I swore off black tights for the rest of the year. So what, it's only the first week of March?? I was DONE with black tights 'til Fall. 

Then, I woke up Friday, and it was cold. And windy. And I couldn't find a pair of pants that looked remotely OK and I realized (after I got out of the shower) that I hadn't shaved my legs, and was running late. I also thought that I'm not sure my pale little legs are quite ready to be bare in public...... or rather, I'm not sure people are ready to see my pale little wintery legs quite yet. I made a mental note to go shopping for a new pair of transition black pants and I pulled back on the damn black tights. But it was all fine - it ended up being a chilly Friday, other girls were likewise in their black tights and my legs were thankful. I was not grumpy. All was good.

But now here we are with a full week ahead of gorgeous spring weather. Snow at this point seems impossible. I'm ready to wear more color, less black. And before yoga on Sunday, I managed to find a couple pairs of transition black pants that should do the job for me this year. (For anyone who has a hard time finding petite fit pants - the Banana Republic 00P (I think it is Martin fit) pants actually fit alright)  Not great, but they'll do the job. Not too frumpy and the length is just about right for both heels and flats. A little long / short on either end - but they just need to get me through the transition weeks anyway.

So I pulled on the new transition black pants Monday morning. My bare tights-free legs felt good underneath the pants. My bare tights-free feet felt good in my flats and then heels, peeking out below my pants. I was especially thankful for no black tights today -- what an amazing summery day!

Yes, it's only the second week of March. But I'm putting those black tights away 'til Fall. Done. Now my little legs just need to get ready to see the public light of day again so I can put the transition pants away and rock the bare legs w/ my skirts and dresses. A couple upcoming long-weekend warm-weather trips should do the job there.

And just like that... it's Spring!


3 comments:

  1. Yes to the problem with flats / heels. You can sew little snaps into the inside of the pants, though (easiest when wearing pants with lining) - it works wonders!!

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  2. (snaps like these: http://www.google.com/imgres?start=88&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&addh=104&tbm=isch&tbnid=avQ5VSAd-U-L8M:&imgrefurl=http://www.whitecroft.co.uk/haberdashery_hang_packs.asp&docid=7h_iGJFEKOi0qM&imgurl=http://www.whitecroft.co.uk/productimages/Essentials_Haberdashery/Misc/Sew-On_Snaps_small.jpg&w=448&h=298&ei=ZBxlT-CEKMPk0QGdxsSGCA&zoom=1&biw=1440&bih=809)

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  3. Awesome! thanks so much, I never thought of this and will definitely give these a try!!

    ReplyDelete