Do people notice?

This business about noticing is relative. People in general see what they expect to see, except when they are paying particular attention to something: like we might pay particular attention to legs, to see whether they are hosed or not.

Oddly enough, men's legs are not something that most people are interested in.  In fact for most men, there is an inbuilt homophobia that causes them to disregard other men's personal appearance.

Be that as it may, the data that enters our senses needs to be processed and interpreted. This processing uses finite resources, so there is always an limit to what can be assimilated, whether you want to see it in terms of mental or neurological energy, or in terms of opportunity cost.

So we are selective about what we take in, out of all the raw sense data that we actually receive. There is an attention threshold and we consciously process only what passes that threshold. (We may subliminally process other stuff as well.)

What passes the threshold is what we are paying attention to, and anything else that departs from what we expect by a sufficient margin to clear the threshold (this derives ultimately from our primitive 'fight or flight' mechanism).

So the more different the sense data is from what is expected, the more likely it is to come to our notice. Having said that, studies have shown that even large deviations from the expected can fail to register. See here (word.doc) for some interesting examples.

Turning to the question of men's legs, except in cold weather, shorts are almost as much to be expected as long trousers, so shorts by themselves are unlikely to register. Then, provided the legs do not call attention to themselves by looking 'wrong' in some way, they are unlikely to register further.

So what constitutes 'calling attention to themselves'? That is the question!

Basically tights/ph have 3 visual qualities when they are worn: colour, texture (including pattern) and sheen (optical refractivity). The further any of these are from the expected bare skin appearance, the more likely the tights are to be noticed. The effect is cumulative.

Texture and pattern are the biggest giveaways! No one who wants to be unnoticed would wear fishnets, though fishnets that match your own skin tone are unnoticeable from more than 6 or 7 yards away. But avoid patterns and textures unless you are making a fashion statement.

A real worry in most wearer's minds is, I think, sheen. That is the one thing you have less control over. You can choose your colour carefully and make sure there is no obvious pattern or texture, but you can't choose the way that the nylon catches and disperses the light.

There are two really elements to this. One is perspective. Legs are, d'uh, round, not flat. Nylon goes round the legs, so whichever way a wearer is facing, nylon appears denser at the edges than at the part that is towards you. The lighter in colour the tights, the less colour there is to be dense at the edges; the more opaque, the less the skin will shine through from straight ahead. The effect is therefore particularly noticeable with dark sheers.

The second element is the way light catches the hosiery: refractivity in its true sense. The older 100% nylon tights were fairly matt.  It is the addition of lycra that makes hosiery shine. The cross-section of the filaments and the composition and structure of the yarn can make a huge difference to the sheen. Remember that when you see your own legs in tights, you are looking down on them, and the sheen will always be many times more noticeable than if you were looking straight at them or at a slight angle (as you would in the street). But by all means go for the more matt varieties.

Finally, we can get hung up about skin tone.  The truth is that there are as many skin tones as there are people, and they go from almost white to almost black (or at least  very dark brown.) So anything on the spectrum from off white through beige, tan and brown to nearly black is a credible skin tone.  'Yes, but is it my skin tone?', I hear you asking! I have come to the conclusion that it probably matters less than you think.

We wearers have developed techniques for detecting hose, such as comparing leg colour with arm and / or face colour. The average person in the street is unlikely to do this. I have worn dark brown hose so that my legs look as though they are some ethic minority colour. My arms are pale and freckled (typical red haired complexion). But so long as nobody spends the extra mental processing power in comparing my legs with my arms, the fact that my legs are the 'wrong' colour may not register. People have seen (bare) legs that colour – why look further? Of course darker tights are a giveaway if someone is paying attention, but ninety nine times out of a hundred they are not.

So the secret is not to let your tights-wearing cross their awareness threshold. Do not draw attention to yourself. Remember, effects are cumulative. So make sure the rest of your appearance is 'normal'. It will help if you wear socks. What you are wearing on your top should not be too heavy-looking for shorts. Short sleeves, no jacket  is best.

Your behaviour will register much more than your appearance (remember – fight or flight mechanism?). If you act normally and appear confident you will blend into the scenery. If you appear hesitant or nervous, look around frequently, or look down at your legs a lot, people will notice. And once they notice one thing, they will notice lots of other things – that rip in your shirt, the fact that your fingernails need cutting, your scuffed shoes, oh, and the fact you are wearing tights.

There is a lot you can do to reduce the visibility of your tights. But whatever you are wearing, unless it crosses a person's awareness threshold they will not notice that you are wearing.

People do not notice.
If they notice, they do not care.
If they care, they are too polite to say anything.

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