Do people notice?

by Kaj

Welcome to Kaj, a reader from Finland who has some interesting things to say. I am impressed with Kaj's command of English - this entry has not been corrected in any way. (I am always ready to help non-native speakers of English with their contributions if they wish.) If my own English needs correcting, I know I can rely on Smoov!

I have been pondering on the subject ’Do people notice?’. Lately I have been consequently wearing tights (usually nude, tan or suntan ones or even slightly darker tones) combined with shorts and cotton socks at home. If not every day, at least four-five times a week. My open minded family (wife and four kids) accepts my tights and does not pay so much attention to them. They know that I feel comfortable in them and that they are a part of my personality.

We live in the Finnish countryside and there are lot of relatives and close friends in the neighbourhood and they certainly know about my relationship to tights. Some of them visit us frequently, and of course they have a chance both to see and make comments on my tights. And sometimes they even say something, usally positive comments combined with a smile or a joke. And I am joking back, of couse.

But usually they don’t notice anything, maybe they are so used to see me in that dress or maybe they are too polite or maybe they just fix their gaze on another things. It is about human perception. The same thing happens while I am walking the dog and meet other people. No one notices, and if they notice it just verifies something that they already know: the guy really wears tights, it is not a legend.

Last Saturday we went to a party where we met a good friend of ours. She told me that she had read about my affection to tights and now she wanted to experince them. Unfortunately, the evening was too hot for tights under pants, but I said to her that she is anytime welcome to our place. Next day she made a short visit to our house, chatted in the kitchen with my wife while I was preparing a dinner. After 15 minutes I asked her to pay attention to my nylon covered legs. She was amazed and had to look three times before she really saw that I was wearing a pair of 20 denier matte suntan (quite pale tone this time) coloured tights. People do not notice (at least when they are gossiping with friends).

I read Cedric’s comment on the ’Do people notice’ thread. And of course he is right when talking about our northern climate. Especially the Finnish autumn, winter and spring are very cold seasons, and no one wears shorts (women’s fashion city shorts are an exception) for nine months. Dressing up in January in minus 20 celsius degrees in a pair of 160 denier tights combined with shorts and heavy boots would be a tremendous deviation from the ordinary street dress code. At least, you would be spotted.

Another question is if you mind being caught. Strickly speaking the most cruical question: Do you mind or not?!? Tights will never become a part of men’s fashion or everyday clothing as long as we are too concerned about what other people think about our outfit.