Celebrity Halloween costumes 2026 with tights: Cara Delevingne, Christina Aguilera, Paris Hilton and more

At Halloween you read a costume from the top, but you recognise it from the legs. Over the weekend of 31 October 2026, between Kendall Jenner's party in Los Angeles, Christina Aguilera's Xtinaween in Beverly Hills and Heidi Klum's Heidiween in New York, the costumes that worked best started from a pair of tights or stockings: Frank-N-Furter's black fishnets, a Teletubby's sheer green, a harlequin's diamonds. Here are the five looks, each with its photo, and what we know about the legwear.

The starting point is Yahoo Style Canada's gallery of 1 November (Rocio Corsi), which we checked against the official photos and other reports. In no case has the brand of the tights been credited: where we talk about denier and colour, it is our reading of the photos.

Cara Delevingne as Frank-N-Furter: black fishnets and a garter belt

Cara Delevingne dressed as Dr Frank-N-Furter, Tim Curry's character in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and said so herself on Instagram: "Dr Frank N Furter will see you now." According to Yahoo Style, the costume was for Kendall Jenner's Halloween birthday party.

The look follows the film from top to toe: a curly black wig, dark red lips, a pearl necklace, a black sequinned corset laced at the front, sequinned fingerless gloves, black briefs and a garter belt. Below, black fishnet stockings with a medium net, clipped to the suspenders, and black platform heels. It is the most faithful version of the lot: fishnets and a garter belt have been the character's signature since 1975. To wear fishnets outside a costume, see our fishnet tights guide.

Paris Hilton as a fairy: fishnets and crystals at Xtinaween

At Xtinaween, the Halloween party Christina Aguilera throws every year at a private home in Beverly Hills, Paris Hilton arrived on 31 October as a fairy. Yahoo Style describes a fitted icy-blue corset with flower and butterfly embellishments, aqua gloves, a layered metallic mini skirt, a long blonde wig, a floral crown and wings.

On her legs, fishnet tights and pointed pumps covered in crystals. In Stefanie Keenan's photo the net is pale, almost skin-toned, and fine: it reads as a texture on the leg rather than a pattern, which is why it holds up under a costume already full of detail.

Christina Aguilera as a harlequin clown: diamond over-the-knee stockings

The host was a "fantasy harlequin clown", according to Elle, with Chappell Roan beside her as a porcelain doll. Yahoo Style describes a red-and-white striped corset with matching micro shorts, long blonde curls tied with red ribbons and pointed red heels. In the Getty photo the sleeves are huge and puffed, striped in white and burgundy.

The legs are the most precise part of the costume: diamond-pattern over-the-knee stockings, sheer white with large burgundy diamonds and a cream lace band at the top. They pick up the harlequin motif without repeating the stripes of the corset: two different patterns, but the same burgundy as the sleeves.

Justine Skye as Dipsy: sheer green tights

Justine Skye chose Dipsy, the green Teletubby, for Kendall Jenner's party in Los Angeles (Yahoo Style). The costume turns the puppet into a glossy lime-green bodysuit with a sweetheart neckline and short sleeves, the grey square on the front standing in for the character's screen, long gloves in the same green and a hood with the straight antenna and round ears. Below, sheer green tights and strappy stiletto sandals.

It is the easiest idea to copy: tights the same colour as the costume lengthen the figure and turn the character into a single line of colour. From the photos the sheer looks like around 20 denier, the green paling over the knee.

Valentina Sampaio as Poison Ivy: green lace thigh-highs

At Heidiween, Heidi Klum's party at Cathedrale at the Moxy Hotel in New York on 31 October, Valentina Sampaio was Poison Ivy in Uma Thurman's Batman & Robin (1997) version, according to Yahoo Style: a deep green lace bodysuit, long red hair, a crown of orange flowers and green leaves, and a leafy mask across the forehead.

The legs follow the bodysuit: sheer green thigh-highs with a deep lace band in the same green, and pointed red pumps. The red of the shoes matches the hair, and it is the only colour that breaks the green. For the right names for thigh-highs, hold-ups and stockings, see our thigh-high stockings guide.

And Charli XCX?

At Kendall Jenner's party at Bar Marmont on Friday 30 October, Charli XCX was Lee Holloway, Maggie Gyllenhaal's character in Secretary (2002): a sheer white blouse, a black pencil skirt, black pumps and sheer tights, which Marie Claire describes as "ripped sheer tights". The only photos are paparazzi shots that cannot be embedded, so she gets a single line here; her red-carpet sheer black is in our InStyle Imagemaker Awards piece.

The tights: what we know and what we don't

None of the five has credited the brand of her legwear, and none of the reports we read names one. What we know comes from Yahoo Style's descriptions and from the photos: black fishnets with a garter belt for Cara Delevingne, pale fishnets for Paris Hilton, diamond over-the-knee stockings for Christina Aguilera, sheer green tights for Justine Skye, green thigh-highs for Valentina Sampaio. Exact denier and shades are our reading of the pictures.

Why it works

A Halloween costume has a few seconds to be recognised, and the legs are the largest surface left free. The stars who chose well used tights as part of the character, not as an accessory: the fishnets are Frank-N-Furter, the green is Dipsy, the diamonds are the harlequin. It is the same logic as our tights for this year's top costumes: the character first, then the right pair.

How to copy them

• Fishnets do half the costume. A black medium net for rock characters, a pale fine net for fairy-tale ones: the first reads from across the room, the second only up close.
• Tights the colour of the costume. Green with green, like Justine Skye: a 20 denier sheer in the same shade as the bodysuit lengthens the leg.
• Thigh-highs only with the band showing. If the stocking ends above the knee, the lace band should be visible and match the stocking, as on Valentina Sampaio.
• One pattern, not two. Stripes on the corset, diamonds on the legs: two different motifs only hold together when they share a colour.
• The shoe finishes the character. Red with Poison Ivy's green, crystal with the fairy, black with fishnets: one shoe, chosen for its colour.

The photos

The photos of Paris Hilton, Christina Aguilera and Valentina Sampaio come from Getty Images (Stefanie Keenan; TheStewartofNY/WireImage) and are shown with Getty's official embed. Cara Delevingne's and Justine Skye's posts are embedded from their Instagram accounts. The circle on the cover is a photo of Cara Delevingne at San Diego Comic-Con 2016 by Gage Skidmore (CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons), not from Halloween night. The cover illustration is ours.

The make-up comes off in an hour and the wig in a minute: the right pair of tights, though, is still useful after 31 October.