Front-row tights: Nicole Kidman at Chanel and Anna Pepe at Roberto Cavalli

At the Spring/Summer 2027 shows, the big houses sent their models out almost entirely bare-legged. At Chanel, in Matthieu Blazy's collection at the Grand Palais, we counted not a single pair of tights, as we wrote in our Paris report. Black tights were still in the room, though, in the front row. Nicole Kidman, a house ambassador, wore them sheer under tweed. In Milan a few days earlier, Anna Pepe wore a fuller black at Roberto Cavalli, under lace.

Two ways to use the same black, and together they sum up the season of sheer black tights coming back.

Nicole Kidman at Chanel: grey tweed and sheer black

On Monday 5 October 2026 Nicole Kidman sat in the front row of the Chanel Spring/Summer 2027 show at the Grand Palais in Paris, with her daughter Faith. She wore, according to Marie Claire Australia, a grey oversized blazer dress in the house's signature tweed "over sheer black stockings and classic black pumps", with a patent burgundy clutch.

My Face Hunter adds the details: charcoal tweed, double-breasted with gold buttons, strong padded shoulders and a mini hem, and underneath "sheer black tights" with pointed black pumps. Neither outlet names the tights brand, and no stylist was credited.

In the photos the black is clean but the skin shows all the way down, from knee to ankle: our read is a matte sheer between 15 and 20 denier, with no sheen. It is the choice that keeps the look serious. Short tweed with bare legs would have read as summer; with a heavier pair it would have turned wintry. This way it sits right in the middle, like October itself.

Anna Pepe at Cavalli: black lace and a fuller black

On 24 September 2026, at the Roberto Cavalli Spring/Summer 2027 show during Milan Fashion Week, the Italian rapper Anna Pepe was in the front row: Sky TG24 names her in a caption to its photos of the evening. No outlet described her outfit, so what follows comes from the Getty photos.

A black open-knit mini dress with a high neck and long sleeves, with gold details at the cuffs; black and gold jewelled shoes; a bag with a silver tiger head, one of Cavalli's motifs; pink hair. On the legs, black tights fuller than Kidman's: the skin barely shows at the knee. Our read is around 40 denier. Again, the brand was not named.

The logic is the opposite of Kidman's. Lace is already sheer: a sheer pair underneath would have stacked transparency on transparency and blurred the pattern. A fuller black works as a backdrop, and the open knit reads better.

How to copy them

Kidman's look calls for a matte sheer black between 15 and 20 denier, a pointed black pump and something structured on top: a long blazer worn as a dress, a skirt suit with a short skirt. Wolford's Fatal 15 (£35) is a matte, seamless sheer; for the barest version, the Individual 10 ($60 in the US).

Anna Pepe's look calls for a fuller black under a dress that already does the work: open knit, lace, mesh. Calzedonia's Sheer Essential 40 Denier Tights in black were $12 on the US site on 28 October. With a black like that, the shoe can take the lead: a jewelled detail, a metallic finish.

None of these is the pair actually worn, which was not credited: they are alternatives we chose for colour and denier.

In short

• Nicole Kidman, Chanel, 5 October: charcoal tweed blazer dress, sheer black tights (15–20 denier by our read), pointed black pumps, burgundy clutch.
• Anna Pepe, Roberto Cavalli, 24 September: black open-knit mini dress, fuller black tights (around 40 denier by our read), jewelled shoes.
• Tights brands: not named in either case.
• The rule: sheer under solid fabrics like tweed, fuller black under fabrics that are already sheer, like lace.