Do you have any idea how uncomfortable many of us find hose? YOU try it sometime.
I am going to go out today on a couple of errands, and I will be wearing a dress and going barelegged. Anyone who doesn’t like the way I look is invited to look somewhere else. Seriously. I don’t dress so that passing strangers can ogle my bod.
I’m 38 and untanned and I look just fine bare-legged, thank you very much. If I were lumpy or veiny or in any other way not aesthetically pleasing, I *would *wear hose (or, more likely, pants). For my own personal vanity, by the way, not for your good opinion.
As for the toes thing, it seems to me that *shoes *are the solution to that particular problem, unless of course you’re implying that a woman should wear hose with open-toed shoes, in which case you can consider your license to give fashion advice immediately repealed.
39, untanned, I think my legs look just fine bare. My toes look great too - I am a big fan of professional pedicures.
You may scoff at my hideous bare legs here:
http://gloriana.myphotoalbum.com/view_photo.php?set_albumName=album02&id=cute_outfit1
I have worn panty hose exactly one time in the past 5 years - to my stepfather’s funeral It was the type of southern, formal occasion that demands pantyhose - at least for me.
I hope to never wear pantyhose again. I work in a business casual company in Southern California. I wear a lot of skirts and capri pants with sandals. Panty hose is VERY rare here and I always think it looks a little fake and shiny.
PS - I also don’t wear makeup.
If you have ten toes facing 16 different directions, I suggest surgery or another type of medical intervention to solve the problem. Cramming said toes into hose (which rhymes), then wearing open-toed shoes, is a fashion faux-pas almost beyond belief. And it will not fix the problem.
Well, thank you for informing me my skin color is unacceptable. My legs are white, get over it already. I don’t dress for you anyway.
My feet look so effing good you I should charge for you to look at 'em.
Though I wouldn’t say it quite as harshly I agree to a degree. Though I much prefer the smooth, even look of a ladies legs in hose of any kind, I do enjoy nice legs and feet on any woman. The only ones who I find offputting are the ones who are Casper white and choose to wear short skirts to work the Monday after cutting down acres of bushes in their back yard in shorts (scratches) and picking 10 bug bites on their legs until they scab over. Ugh. White legs in and of themselves are just fine.
Only thing worse than an abused pair of legs is an abused pair of feet. If you have thick, crusty callouses, yellow toenails, scratches and bug bites and chipped nail polish on your toes then you probably shouldn’t be wearing your open toed flip flops to the office, or open toed anything for that matter.
Bare legs and feet just aren’t office appropriate unless you take basic care of them.
All of these can be hidden with hose for the most part.
Pantyhose all the way. My legs are too heavy for garters and stockings. Pantyhose make me feel dressed and professional and hold everything in nicely. Bare feet in dress shoes just doesn’t feel right to me. And in the winter, hose helps keep my legs warm on the days I wear dresses or skirts. I can’t imagine bare legs inside boots trying to clear snow off my car in the parking lot at the end of the day, but I saw several women doing just that last winter.
WTF is wrong with callouses, scratches, and bugbites? People shouldn’t ever walk barefoot in the forest?
Should I (a man) not wear shorts to the office if I went hiking/camping last weekend?
Ladies, take it from an unabashedly lecherous male. The correct answer here is stockings with garters. 
As usual, a question asked of women about their behavior is redirected and made all about men and their preferences. Because that’s what’s important.
You think women look bad bare legged? Are you one of those guys who thinks women look better in bras, too? I mean, yes, I get that bras are obviously appropriate for every day wear, but what kind of guy prefers legs to be covered up?
Anyway, I’m (just) under 25 and prefer to have bare legs and mine look pretty awesome without them. And I’ve never had my toes facing 16 different directions and I think if you’ve got that problem, pantyhose isn’t going to correct it.
Neither, but if I have to wear them, pantyhose win. Just more comfortable and practical. I haven’t worn actual pantyhose in years–I live in Florida, and almost no one wears them these days. I do wear opaque black tights with skirts in the winter nowadays; those have been trendy for a few years now, although I also wore them back in the 70s as well.
I didn’t even know that women still wore pantyhose. I don’t even own a pair. I only see them on older women. I live downtown St. Louis and even the businesswomen I see aren’t wearing them. I think they look weird!
I work at a government agency in which most of the females that work there are under 40, probably under 35, and they all dress fairly stylishly with short skirts and high heels and I would say that the overwhelming majority wear hose to work. I’d say almost 50% of the people that work here are female too. The only time I don’t see alot of hose is in the winter when I see alot of tights.
This is coming from a guy who notices this.
I hate, hate, hate regular hose. If I have to wear sheer whatever, I’ll go for slacks and the ones that are like socks (“garter stockings” in the OP, I guess). I don’t even wear skirts to weddings if I can help it, in order to avoid that torture instrument. In a skirt and in most climates I need either full hose or pettypants, and I’d just rather wear real trousers.
But last year I discovered two great things about Scotland:
So for the first time in… counts… 27 years, I bought a skirt without someone holding the economic equivalent of a gun to my head. Actually, I bought three!
You may be describing “trouser socks”, which were not mentioned by the OP. Trouser socks are usually made of nylon and are much thinner than regular socks but somewhat thicker than hose. They usually come up to mid-calf or a bit below the knee. (Here’s some available from JC Penney.) They’re designed for wearing with trousers, but you can also wear them with long skirts. I wore trouser socks all the time when I was working in Asia in a more “business formal” environment, although now I just wear regular socks to work.
Perfect reply. Speaking from experiences of my ex girlfriends and now my wife.
Heh. My ex-wife gave me a hint: “Forget your masculinity. You can bundle up all you can with coats and sweaters when it’s -40C, but your legs are only protected by blue jeans on your walk to the corner store. Here’s a pair of pantyhose; put them on. They will keep your legs warm.”
Well, I was reluctant, but I put them on. And they did keep my legs warm under my jeans! Nicely warm, actually. To this day, in the coldest weather (like -40 C/F), I can bundle up my body, but my legs are toasty-warm in pantyhose. I can comfortably walk to the corner store in -40C/F. Pantyhose are much better at keeping warm than long johns.