Reader Question – Tights for Tall Girls

The other day, I received an email from Reader Friend Kay:

Gracey,

I have just stumbled on your blog and was thrilled to see a tall girl. My friend Janice is about as tall as you, but not plus size. She has definite issues with fit and as such has kind of given up on participating in personal style.

Her burning question to me last time we talked was about tights.

To get the leg length right, she has to purchase queen size, but then the top panty is too large and the crotch is at her thighs.

I noticed a lot of your tights were Hue or Spanx. Do they fit you better, come in a wider array of sizes, what?

Help us girls out! It's cold here in northern Virginia!

Now, you know I’m not about to let any of my fellow tall girls freeze, not in Northern Virginia or anywhere else, so here is my best advice for tights for tall girls.

For opaque, black tights, I suggest SPANX Tight End Tights because they offer a ton of sizing options.  I’d be surprised if they didn’t have a size to fit nearly everyone’s height/weight ratio (I wear size D).  In addition to multiple sizing options, I also like SPANX because they are slimming but not painful and they are sufficiently opaque.  Which I feel is important in an opaque tight.

SPANX also makes sheer, patterned tights which fit just as comfortably as their opaque tights:

For colored tights, HUE tights definitely work the best for me.  Although they insist on offering improbable, dual sizing (S/M or M/L) on a lot of their patterned and sweater tights, for their plain, colored tights they offer a fair variety of sizes.  I wear the size 3 in HUE and I’ve found that they're both long enough in the leg and that the waist comes up high enough so they don't cut into me.  I also love HUE tights for their opacity and color saturation.  They also hold up pretty well; I’ve had many of my pairs for a couple of years.

And, every once in a while, HUE throws us tall girls a bone and creates patterned pairs with normal sizing.

HUE Herringbone

HUE Swiss Dot

I’ve also tried Target tights, Nordstrom tights and DKNY tights but they also don’t offer extended/additional sizing in their sweater or patterned tights and HUE is better than all of them for opacity and/or longevity.

Which isn’t to say that Target won’t do in a pinch; I have a couple of pairs from there:

Target polka dot

Target fishnets

If you still don’t seem to fit in SPANX or HUE sizes, I’d suggest trying footless tights, especially if you plan on wearing them with tall boots.  With footless tights, you can go smaller in the waist sizing without having to worry about the crotch getting pulled down to accommodate your long legs.  And, if you can’t find footless tights in the color you want, you can make them.  You can cut the toe out of regular, opaque tights to make them into footless tights and they won’t run and can be laundered regularly.  Obviously this won’t work on lace or sweater tights, but I’ve done it on opaque tights and it’s worked fine.

How about you, Reader Friends?  Who makes your favorite tights?

Gracey