At Hosieree.com, we have all kinds of hosiery in our huge product selection. However, those who are new to legwear may find themselves confused at first. Stockings? Pantyhose? Leggings? Tights? What’s with all the terms, and what do they mean?

Collectively, those are all hosiery items. And if you don’t know what hosiery means, it’s simply the garments we wear directly on our feet and legs.

There’s a lot of confusion between those terms, and they’re sometimes mistakenly interchanged. After all, they appear so similar to each other. That’s why we have created a simple guide to help you easily differentiate one from the other.

Stockings

Stockings are footed, tight-fitting garments that are worn just above the knee or mid-thigh with suspender belts to keep them from falling down. They are often sold with hold-ups or stay-ups that provide a suspender belt free option.

Traditionally, stockings are sheer, though there are modern iterations of stockings that feature trendy prints, patterns, and details such as that in Secret, mod.8 Classic Stockings.

Stockings are easy to wear, but aside from their functionality, they can double as stunning lingerie you can wear to feel confident about yourself or to allure that special someone.

What’s great about stockings is that they’re generally more comfortable to wear than tights as they are less restrictive.

Tights

Tights cover a lot more skin than stockings do as they cover the toes all the way up to the waist without any interruptions. However, compared to pantyhose, they are generally thicker as they have a denier of 40 to 100.

In terms of styling tights, they’re slightly more versatile than stockings as they can be worn under shorts, skirts, and dresses. The great thing about tights is that they can come in a variety of fabrics, styles, and patterns. A great example of a pair of patterned tights is Afina 40 Fashion Tights.

Tights are easy to put on with any outfit. Furthermore, they can be used to hide imperfections on the legs for that extra boost of confidence.

Pantyhose

Pantyhose are often mistaken for tights as they both stretch from one’s feet up to one’s waistline. However, the big difference is that pantyhose are the thinnest of all hosiery items, with a denier of 8 to 30.

Pantyhose such as the Acapulco 7 Non-slip Sole Pantyhose are perfect for that bare leg effect meant to enhance the natural beauty of your leg.