Month: August 2021

We must confess to starting this review with a degree of prejudice… £12 for one size, Pretty Polly tights seems a bit much. On the upside, they are “Made in England”, not just designed here. One size incidentally means no more than a 42” hip and no taller than 5’10”.

The tights come in the standard “House of Holland” square box. The inner packet is sealed with a label that carries instructions on how to put them on. We like the instructions on the sticker as you are almost forced to read them. Unlike instructions on the inner card that can be discarded in your rush to get dressed.

Instructions are needed as we are in a period of growing hosiery wear and there are still many girls of all ages wearing tights for the first time. If we were going to be picky, we could say that referring to “the toe area” in the instructions is confusing with footless tights.

The tights are nicely made, the lace pattern extends from the very light cuff detail to the slightly deeper waistband. The waistband is the turnover and seam type, not quite what we would hope for at £12 a pair. The flat seams and cotton lined gusset are well designed and finished.

For once, I think we can forgive “one size” sizing. These strong tights with masses of stretch, too, so they really should fit all shapes and sizes. A 34” leg is accommodated with ease even when combined with hips right on the size limit.

The fit is very comfortable. The cuff holds the bottom of the leg in place with no hint of pressure, and the lace material follows all your curves. Again being picky, we could not get the seams in the body to sit perfectly straight. All in all, we like these tights a lot, but we can’t help feeling just a little short on quality detailing for £12.

For more Pretty Polly products, click here. For more reviews, click here.

The Pretty Polly House of Holland range of tights has been one of the fashion highlights of the last twelve months. Perhaps doing more through its use of celebrity placements to get young women into hosiery than any other range. Star of the range, if you will excuse the pun, is the Superstar Tights which are excellent in black and sublime in gold. That style is covered in stars. This one has a star on each knee, so is less truly more?

We still have a bit of an issue paying £12.00 for one size tights from Pretty Polly. But designer exclusivity seldom comes cheaply. In keeping with the rest of the range, the almost square cardboard packet is big on House of Holland branding with Pretty Polly much less in evidence. The inner plastic bag is sealed with a paper label that carries instructions on handling and putting on the tights; it is a great idea when so many wearers will be trying their first sheers, but an easy-peel label would be better to rip to get at the tights.

Lurex panties! That is the first impression. The entire high leg styled panty part of these tights is Lurex. How many of you would buy Lurex panties? On the upside, they are pretty opaque, so you may not need other underwear to retain modesty, and the seam is flat. On the downside, there is no gusset, and the fabric feels quite harsh.

The legs, in contrast to the panty, are light, smooth and soft. There is just a lightly reinforced toe detail and, of course, a large Lurex star halfway up each straight leg. Will the star sit at the knee regardless of leg length and foot size?

The answer to that question appears to be yes! 22% Lycra gives a tremendous amount of stretch. So you should be able to get a perfect fit regardless of where you are in the size range. You would need to be a very leggy 5’10” to make use of all of it. A gusset would be nice, particularly for a perfect fit on the more full-figured woman. But even without it, the fit is good, and the roughness of the Lurex is not evident on the inside once you have the tights on.

Slightly more subtle than the Superstar Gold Tights and more versatile too. The single star is something a stylish young woman could carry off with shorts or a short skirt in the daytime, whereas the more famous design is perhaps more for parties. The sheerlegs themselves are a delight. We would love to know if Pretty Polly make a basic sheer of the same weight and finish.

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Henry Holland has designed this cutting edge collection of legwear by mixing sheer and opaque fabrics with some lovely House of Holland twists. Developed and made in England by Pretty Polly. One size fits up to hip 42″ (107cm) height up to 5’10” (178cm).

We have seen a fair number of dogtooth and houndstooth designs over the years, almost all in the traditional black and white. All that has varied has been the size of the pattern and its quality and definition. As you can see here, Henry Holland has dropped white in favour of navy blue and added a lime green “stocking top” into the design.

As is typical with Pretty Polly fashions at present, these are one size tights to fit up to 5’10 (178 cm) tall, a weight up to 160lb (72kg) and hips up to 42″ (107cm). Pretty Polly has put some quality into the panty with both flat seams and a gusset. The panty is plain with the houndstooth pattern starting on the leg just below gusset level. The legs are straight and finished with a simple reinforced toe detail.

Knitting in the houndstooth pattern gives an almost fleecy feel to the inside of the legs. A plain panty is very sensible to prevent the texture of the pattern from showing through tight clothes. Only once you have these tights on do, you appreciate them. The legs are sheer and shiny, with the matt houndstooth pattern applied over the top, contrasting colour and weight and texture.

The plain panty portion is opaque and “big pants” style. The panty styling is comfortable to wear, gives a smooth silhouette and removes the need for any other underwear. Sizing is surprisingly generous, and the stretch from 12% Lycra also provides for a good fit.

If we have any reservations, it is the green band above the knee. It limits both when you can wear these tights and with what. Such is the feeling of quality in these tights. It is hard to believe they are Pretty Polly one size. Once you have them on, you may not want to take them off.

For more Pretty Polly products, click here. For more reviews, click here.

The House of Holland range is very much “in fashion” at present. We had hoped to include photos of one of our ladies in these tights, but she declined based on poor experiences with the brand’s quality in the past, so you will have to make do with words.

The tights come in the standard House of Holland square box. The inner packet is sealed with a label that includes instructions as to how to put them on. The instructions are a good idea, but they also hint at worries about laddering.

OK… £12 for one size tights. They must be joking! One size is up to 5’10” (178cm) tall and 42″ (107cm) hips, by the way. Detailing is quite bare. Straight legs with a reinforced toe, sheer to waist with flat seams in the panty and a cotton-lined gusset. The waistband is quite deep at nearly 4 cm, but there is no finger band.

The sizing looks very small at, but you can feel the capacity of the material to stretch. We chose a model with long legs to see just what the tights can stretch to, as is our habit. Well, a 34″ long leg was no problem. There is plenty of stretch, and once on, the fit is good too. The colour is perfectly even, and the finish is a matt, a combination that does an outstanding job of emphasising the curves of your legs.

The house design is a matter of taste. From our point of view, we can’t see that adding beige houses to black tights do anything other than telling people you bought this brand. The design seems to introduce weakness too, despite applying even more care than usual, our test pair developed a run starting at the corner of one of the houses on the hip; in this case, out of sight, the tights are still wearable. Would we buy these tights? Most certainly not, £12 for tights that you may not even get to wear once, and after one wearing the novelty will have worn off anyway, is just far too much.

For more Pretty Polly products, click here. For more reviews, click here.

These tights are supplied in the open packet often used for opaques, so you may find that you need to wash them before you wear them. The packet doesn’t tell you very much. All the size and style information is stuck on the bar code label.

The picture above is very carefully posed. The pattern must stop mere fractions of an inch above the hem of that skirt. Although the colour of our test pair is described as Mulberry (as pictured above), that is the colour of the legs only. The plain panty is black. While on the subject of the panty it has a very well made seam. But it is not flat, and it is very heavy/ So it may show through any very tight or close-fitting shorts or skirts.

The legs are straight tubes, and the toes are un-reinforced. The toe seam is well finished. Some thought has gone into the design of the legs. Although described as 60 denier, the look and feel are far lighter. The stretched material gives the effect of semi-opaque flowers on a fine checked background. You would almost swear that you could see through, yet every skin blemish is completely concealed. A very effective look that will add that extra touch of style to an outfit.

Fit on the legs is pretty good, and the sizing is accurate in that you won’t find they are too small if you are within the “one size” limits. Fit is the panty is somewhat below par. The lack of a gusset is a serious omission. The heavy seam in the panty flattened quite a lot under tension, so it was not as much of a problem as we feared. But please look in the mirror before going out wearing these tights under tight clothing.

While loving the design, we can’t help feeling that Pretty Polly cut just too many corners. At £6.25, we don’t expect the earth, but we would have liked to see a gusset and the pattern to the waist, flat seams, and a choice of sizes would have been nice but are perhaps too much to expect from PP at this price. A great look for your legs could have been great tights, but too many compromises in the design for us.

For more Pretty Polly products, click here. For more reviews, click here.