How to choose the right denier: the complete guide to sheer, semi-opaque and opaque tights

Denier is the unit that measures how thick the yarn of a pair of tights is: one denier is the weight in grams of 9,000 metres of yarn. The higher the number, the thicker the yarn and the less skin shows through, from 5–10 denier (ultra sheer) to 100 and up (fully opaque). So 40 denier tights are semi-opaque: you sense the leg but not the skin, and the number says nothing about quality or how long they last.

Denier is the first number you read on a pack of tights and the only one almost everyone knows. Yet it gets asked questions it cannot answer: how long they last, how warm they are, how good they are. Denier says one thing, how thick the yarn is, and from that one thing almost everything else follows: how much skin shows, how heavy the tights feel on the leg and, in part, how well they resist.

This guide is part of our complete guide to tights, and every term has its entry in the tights glossary. It starts from the definition, lays out the scale from 5 to 200 denier with examples from the runway, proposes a chart for choosing a weight by temperature and occasion, and ends with what denier does not tell you: resistance, which in a lab test rewarded the cheapest pair.

Tights denier chart: from 5 to 200 denier

The whole denier scale at a glance, with what shows through, the season and the occasion for each step. Read the number as thickness: the higher it is, the thicker the yarn and the less skin shows.

Step by step:

5 to 10 denier: ultra sheer. The leg looks bare, just evened out. These are the tights of summer ceremonies and warm evenings, and the most fragile: a fingernail is enough. Dolce&Gabbana built its sheer socks for Spring/Summer 2027 on this register, visible only when the light catches them.

15 to 20 denier: sheer. The classic, the standard for nude office tights and black evening ones. The skin shows, the tights show too, discreetly. 20 is the most common compromise between a natural look and acceptable life.

30 to 40 denier: semi-opaque. You sense the leg, not the skin. The most versatile weight: it works with a knee-length skirt and a long one, lasts a full day and in black gives the smoky effect runways have used for years. At Milan Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2027 it was the weight seen most.

50 to 70 denier: opaque. The matte black of the city, the white Jil Sander showed under skirts split along the seam. From 70 up the skin no longer shows and colour becomes solid, which makes them the right base for coloured tights and polka dots.

80 to 100 denier: very opaque. Absolute block colour, real warmth, almost a legging. The red-orange tights of London street style, matched to the court shoes, live here.

Beyond 120 denier: thermal and fleece-lined. Here the number stops telling the whole story: warmth comes from the fibre and the air trapped in the knit, and a nominal 200 denier fleece-lined pair is a different object from a 120 denier microfibre.

What is denier? The meaning of denier in tights

One denier is the weight in grams of 9,000 metres of yarn. The unit was born for silk and was later adopted by the synthetic fibre industry: a 15 denier yarn weighs 15 grams every nine kilometres, a 70 denier one weighs 70. The higher the number, the thicker the yarn, the denser the resulting knit, the less skin shows. European packs sometimes also show dtex, grams per 10,000 metres: the conversion is simple, 15 denier is about 17 dtex.

The point people miss is that denier measures the yarn, not the tights. Two 20 deniers can differ in the fineness of the machine that knitted them, in the share of elastane, in how the elastane is worked in (every row, the so-called 3D knit, or every other row) and in the finish. That is why a well-made 15 outlasts a mediocre 40, and why anyone who reads only the number is often wrong.

The RMIT textile lab in Melbourne put it plainly when, in 2016, it tested ten opaque tights for the consumer group CHOICE: “the denier of the yarn in the tights is only one aspect that would impact on the laddering results – knit construction and finish also play a part”. We come back to that test below, because its results are the most useful part of this guide.

The denier scale in one image: what you see at each step, the lab test and the real-life trial.

Which denier is the sheerest?

The sheerest tights sit at the bottom of the scale, at 5 to 10 denier: ultra sheer, the leg looks bare and only slightly evened out. They are the tights of summer ceremonies and warm evenings, and also the most fragile, so they are worth keeping for occasions rather than every day.

Is 20 denier sheer?

Yes. 20 denier tights are sheer: the skin shows, discreetly, and the tights show too. It is the standard weight for nude office tights and for black evening ones, and the sensible minimum for daily wear, since anything finer gives up quickly.

15 vs 20 denier: what is the difference?

Both are sheer, but they are not the same. 15 denier shows a little more skin and is more delicate: in Il Post's trial of Sheertex tights, the 15 denier holed after a few uses while the 30 lasted months. 20 denier is the most common compromise between a natural look and a reasonable life. Choose 15 for an evening or a ceremony, 20 for the office and long days.

20 vs 40 denier: what is the difference?

20 denier is sheer: the skin shows, discreetly, and the tights read as a light veil. 40 denier is semi-opaque: you sense the leg but not the skin, and in black it gives the smoky effect. 40 also lasts better on a long day and suits cooler weather, about 10 to 15 °C in our chart, where 20 belongs to the 15 to 20 °C range. Choose 20 for a nude, polished look, 40 when you want colour on the leg and a pair that survives the chair.

Is 40 denier see-through?

Not really. 40 denier is semi-opaque: the shape and tone of the leg come through, the skin does not. Where the knit stretches most, over the knees and the thighs, it looks a little lighter, and a size too small makes that worse. If you want no skin at all, go to 70 denier and up.

What denier is practical for the office?

For the office, 20 denier nude is the standard, and in black a 30 to 40 denier is better: it survives the chair and does not mark the knees. In winter, 50 to 70 denier opaques are just as office-appropriate. Under 15 denier is for occasions, not for long working days.

What does 40 denier mean?

Forty denier means the yarn weighs 40 grams every 9,000 metres. In practice it is the middle of the scale: semi-opaque tights, where you sense the leg but not the skin. It is the most versatile weight, and our chart puts it in the 10 to 15 °C range, the true mid-season. It works with a knee-length skirt and a long one, lasts a full day at the office and, in black, gives the smoky effect runways have used for years. The Roxana Tiger Tights by Swedish Stockings are a 40 denier, for example. One caution: 40 denier says how thick the yarn is, not how good the tights are, and a well-made 20 can outlast a mediocre 40.

What is the difference between 40 and 80 denier?

40 denier is semi-opaque: you sense the leg, not the skin, and it suits mid-season, about 10 to 15 °C in our chart. 80 denier is very opaque: the colour is solid, the tights feel almost like a legging and give real warmth, for winter days around 5 to 10 °C, ideally with boots. In short, 40 is a veil of colour, 80 is a block of colour.

What denier are opaque tights?

Tights become opaque at around 50 denier, and from 70 denier up the skin no longer shows at all. That is the range of city black and of coloured tights, where colour needs to be solid. Between 80 and 100 denier the colour is absolute; beyond 120 you are in thermal and fleece-lined territory.

100 vs 200 denier: what is the difference?

100 denier tights are very opaque: solid colour and real warmth, the step our chart suggests below 5 °C. At 200 denier you are usually looking at thermal or fleece-lined tights, and the number matters less than the construction: warmth comes from the fibre and the air trapped in the knit, so a fleece-lined pair sold as 200 denier is a different object from a dense microfibre. Choose 100 for a cold city day, 200 or fleece-lined for a day outdoors, in the mountains or in the wind.

What denier tights for school?

For school the logic is the same as for the office, with more wear and tear: long days, sitting, running about. A sheer under 20 denier will not last a week. 30 to 40 denier is the versatile choice for autumn and spring, opaques from 50 to 70 denier for winter, and they also hide the skin entirely from 70 up. If the school has a uniform policy on tights, that comes first.

How to choose the right denier by temperature

There is no standard, but there is common sense. This is our chart, written for someone who spends half an hour outside between home, transport and the office. If you spend the day outdoors, go up one step; in a heated office with a long skirt you can go down one.

Wind counts as much as the thermometer: at 10 degrees with a north wind a 30 denier is not enough. And tights do not work alone: a long wool skirt is worth two steps.

How to choose the right denier for each occasion

• Wedding or ceremony. By day an 8–15 in your skin tone, in the evening a 15–20 black if the dress is dark, the pairing Celine sent down the runway with pointed pumps. Ultra sheers travel with a spare pair in the bag.
• Office. A 20 nude is the standard; in black, a 30–40 is better, as it survives the chair and does not mark the knees.
• Evening. A 15–20 black is the most graphic, a 50 matte black the safest. For the colour question, see what colour tights to wear with a black dress. With sequins and embroidery the sheer works, as seen in Chopova Lowena’s embellished tights.
• With boots. 60–80: boots rub, and a sheer gives up in an afternoon.
• With shorts. Opaques from 60 up, as at London Fashion Week: below that, the shorts fall differently and the contrast is lost.
• With a colour or a pattern. From 50 up, otherwise the pattern distorts on the leg. Kaia Gerber’s Wolford polka dots are an opaque.
• For a bare-leg finish. 8 to 15 in your skin tone, the trick behind make-up effect tights.
• On stage or on the carpet. The barely-there end of the scale: Olivia Rodrigo's Wolford tights are the example of the season.

Denier and resistance: what the test says

In 2016 CHOICE, the Australian consumer group, sent two pairs each of ten opaque tights brands to the RMIT textile lab. The method: a 16 centimetre sample with a 2 millimetre hole, stretched at a constant rate up to a 3 kilogram load, ten repeats per product, recording when the ladder started and how far it ran. For the habits that help at home, read how to stop tights laddering.

The most resistant was a supermarket opaque from a three-pack, 3.30 Australian dollars a pair. The least resistant was the luxury model at 75 dollars, despite an almost identical weight, 66 denier against 70. In between, no correlation between price and result. It is the practical proof of the sentence above: denier is one aspect, knit and finish are the others.

The 2016 CHOICE/RMIT test: ten opaques ranked by resistance, with the price per pair. The most expensive comes last.

Real life agrees. In 2022 Il Post tried Sheertex tights, made with a fibre developed for climbing and sailing: the 30 denier took fifteen wears in two months without damage, the 15 holed after a few uses, and in 2024 the same writers reported that the same pairs, almost three years on, were still intact. They cost between 50 and 90 euros: in that case the price buys a different fibre, not a higher number.

How to read the pack

• Denier or dtex. How much shows. From 5 to 200, with the scale above.
• Composition. Polyamide and elastane in most cases. More elastane, better fit and recovery; under 10% they stay up less well. Alternative fibres exist: Oroblù uses a corn-based elastane, Swedish Stockings a nylon regenerated from fishing nets, and Calzedonia is building with Life Re-Tights the chain to recycle old ones. For what each fibre is and how to read the label, see our guide to what tights are made of.
• 3D knit. Elastane in every row: the tights move with the leg and mark less. Often found on products from 40 denier up.
• Finish. Matte, gloss, satin, sheer-to-waist: at the same denier it changes the light on the leg. Gloss visually slims, matte is more discreet.
• Reinforced toe, gusset, flat seams. These are the points where tights fail or chafe. Houses with a long record on quality, such as Wolford, Falke and Fogal, state them on the product page. Each part is explained in our anatomy of tights.
• Size. Height and weight, never your dress size. Tights that are too small are stretched at every point and ladder first: it is the most expensive mistake you can make with a sheer.

The most common mistakes

1. Buying on the number alone. A well-made 20 beats a mediocre 40 on everything, lifespan included.
2. Going under 15 for every day. Ultra sheers are for occasions; for the office, 20 is the sensible minimum.
3. Thinking 100 denier means warm. Warmth comes from the fibre and the air the knit traps: a dense 100 microfibre is opaque, not necessarily thermal.
4. The wrong nude. A skin-tone sheer only works in your own shade: a lighter one greys the leg, a darker one muddies it.
5. A size down. They do not “stay up better”: they pull, mark and give way.

In short

• Denier is the weight in grams of 9,000 metres of yarn: it tells you how much shows, not how good they are.
• 5 to 20 sheer, 30 to 40 semi-opaque, 50 to 70 opaque, 80 up solid colour, beyond 120 thermal.
• By temperature: above 20 degrees 5–10, 15 to 20 a 15–20, 10 to 15 a 30–50, 5 to 10 a 60–80, below 5 from 100 up.
• Price does not predict resistance: in the CHOICE/RMIT test the most expensive tights laddered first.
• Reading the composition, the knit and the reinforcements matters more than the big number on the pack.

The denier scale, the temperature chart and the occasion advice are the editors’ own guidance. The lab test is by CHOICE Australia (RMIT, 2016); the real-life trials are by Il Post (2022 and 2024).