What colour tights to wear with a black dress

With a black dress the safest tights are sheer black, 15 to 20 denier, with a black shoe. Opaque black comes in when the dress is short, it is cold or there are boots. Nude is for daytime ceremonies and light shoes. Colour works only as the single accent of the look.

The rest of this guide explains when and why.

The rule that always holds

A black dress is a base, and a base leaves room for one voice. It can be the tights, it can be the shoe, it can be a piece of jewellery: not all three. If the tights are coloured or patterned, the shoe stays black and simple. If the shoe is the star, the tights go back to sheer black. Kaia Gerber's look with a little black dress and Wolford polka-dot tights is the textbook example: one patterned element, everything else black.

Which tights for each occasion?

Denier is the density of the yarn: the higher it is, the more the tights cover. The denier guide explains what changes between sheer, semi-opaque and opaque.

Sheer black: why does it work almost everywhere?

Sheer black lengthens the leg, makes the dress look longer than it is and goes with any black shoe. At 10 to 15 denier it is light and suited to the evening; at 15 to 20 it holds up better through a working day. The finish matters: a matte sheer is more elegant and easier to pair, a shiny sheer draws the light onto the legs and is an evening choice, not an office one.

Sheer black at Elisabetta Franchi: with the black leather skirt and tall boots, and with the ruched black dress and sandal. Photo: Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana.

With sheer black the shoe can be black, but also coloured: a red or burgundy pump with a black dress and black sheers is a classic that never tires.

When should you wear opaque black tights?

When the hem rises above the knee, black opaques do two things: they make the look more grown-up and they keep you warm. At 40 to 60 denier the colour is solid but the leg still shows its shape; from 80 up the tights become almost leggings. It is the formula seen at Gucci at Milan Fashion Week, with the mini-skirt suits worn with "black opaques and pointed stilettos", as our runway report tells it. With knee-high boots black opaques are almost compulsory: a sheer inside a boot barely shows and wears out fast.

Black on black, opaque: the pencil skirt with matte tights and loafers; the long black dress with opaque tights and a flat shoe. Photo: Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana.

Mind one detail: black opaques with a nude shoe cut the leg in two. With opaques the shoe stays dark.

Can you wear nude tights with a black dress?

Nude tights with a black dress are a daytime and ceremony choice: weddings, christenings, events where you want the leg to look "bare" but protected. They must be matte and in your own skin tone, not darker, not lighter: a wrong nude shows at once. The glossary explains how to choose the shade. With nude the shoes can be light, nude or coloured, and black too.

A recent example: in New York on 18 October Sydney Sweeney wore a black double-breasted blazer mini dress with oversized cream knit sleeves, and below the hem, as CelebMafia puts it, "sheer nude tights and sharply pointed black pumps establish a much cleaner proportion". The volume stays in the sleeves, the legs are left almost uninterrupted, and the black shoe ties them back to the dress. The tights are not credited.

Two cases where nude does not work with black: the evening, with an elegant black dress, where sheer black is always more refined; and a shiny nude, which under the lights makes the legs look like plastic.

Can you wear coloured tights with a black dress?

A black dress is the best canvas for coloured tights, on one condition: that they are the only colour. Red with a red shoe, as in London street style and on the legs at Elisabetta Franchi; burgundy, forest green, grey; the off-key shades of Jil Sander, pink, purple and yellow, described in the Milan report. Choose the colour in an opaque of 50 denier or more, because a coloured sheer looks faded. The return of coloured tights, from the 1960s to today, is in our piece on the "fun tight".

The one colour accent: red tights with the light slit skirt and with the flesh-toned draped dress, red court shoe. Photo: Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana.

Patterns follow the same rule: polka dots, a tight fishnet, a thin stripe. One only, and everything else black.

Which shoes go with each pair?

• Black pump. Goes with everything: sheer, opaque, nude, colour.
• Tall boot. Black opaques, or a solid colour with a matching boot.
• Ankle boot. 15-denier sheer black or opaques: a thin sheer inside an ankle boot ladders on the edge.
• Loafer and lace-up. Black opaques or colour; with a sheer the loafer looks like an office shoe.
• Sandal. No tights, or an 8-denier sheer nude with an invisible toe. The sheer sock with a jewelled sandal seen at Dolce&Gabbana is a runway idea you can copy, but only with an elegant sandal.
• White sneaker. Black opaques, never sheers.

The mistakes we see most often

• Shiny nude with an evening black dress.
• Sheer black with an open sandal and the reinforced toe showing: if you must, you need a sheer with an invisible toe.
• Black opaques with a nude shoe.
• Colour on the tights and colour on the shoe, different from each other.
• A sheer that is too thin inside boots: it is ruined in a day.

In short

• 15 to 20 denier sheer black and a black pump: the answer that works nine times out of ten.
• Opaque black with a short dress, boots and the cold.
• Matte nude, in your own shade, at daytime ceremonies.
• Colour or pattern only as the single accent, in an opaque.
• The shoe decides: dark with opaques, free with sheers.

To find your way between densities, sizes and materials, the complete guide to tights gathers all our guides.