Falke Pure Matt

by Geraden

About a year ago, in happier times, I was having a discussion in the Chat Room with someone who had been wearing Falke Pure Matt tights and was recommending them highly. Shortly after that I went out and bought a couple of pairs from House of Fraser for £8.00 a pair. Then various things happened, and the tights were put away and more or less forgotten about.

Coming to the present day, it seems now that the post Christmas sales are over, our supply-led retail industry needs something to tide it over until Mother's Day. So recently the shops have been full of Valentine's Day goods.

The human mind works in strange ways, and this started me thinking about tights as a Valentine's gift. Not that I have anyone to buy tights as a gift for. I know that Mrs Geraden would not appreciate a pair of Falkes for Valentine's Day. I can hear her saying, "You paid what for a pair of tights? £8.00?!" (Mrs G. has not heard of Wolfords at £22.00 a pair, but then she is hardly an expert on the subject: the last time she wore sheers was nearly 3 years ago.)

I could have told her that these were the seconds that I got from TKMaxx for £2.99 (that was some time later) but that would just have made me seem a cheapskate.

Anyway, thinking about tights bought as a gift, and about Valentine's Day, made me remember the Falke Pure Matt tights that had been sitting unloved and unworn in my spare hosiery box all those months. Well one thing is certain – no one will be buying me tights for Valentine's Day.

Unless I do it myself! So I decided that this was the time to try out the Falke Pure Matt tights and see if they would cheer me up. Of the two pairs that I have in XL, I chose the 'B-sortiment' ones from TKMaxx at £2.99, mainly because I have become more adventurous with colours and these were a darker shade than the House of Fraser £8.00 ones. The packet does not state what colour they are, but it is somewhere nearer to bronze than to tan. Maybe these are the shade that Falke call 'Brazil'.

Out of the packet I was immediately impressed with how long the tights are. Even so there is still quite a lot of stretch. I noted the quality flat seams and the fully boarded leg shape. They count as sheer to waist, though they do have a lightly reinforced toe with a run stop, a reinforced finger band and seam border (must find out what the correct term for that is, sometime). In XL they have a back panel gusset; smaller sizes have a normal lined gusset. There is sewn in Falke label, which was present even in these supposedly B-Sortierung tights. My guess is that these are seconds in name only – there is nothing wrong with them.

The appearance is 20 denier with a fine, soft knit, and the lycra content is 12%. The tights fit snugly but without noticeable compression. The fit was good even for my long legs. When worn they feel smooth and strokable. Despite the product name, I would not describe them as matt. In fact they have a pleasant soft sheen, which is noticeable, though less obtrusive than that of the Falke Seidenglatt tights. They glide well under trousers.

While preparing this article I compared the packet I had opened with the scan that I made when I bought the original tights from the House of Fraser maybe 6 months earlier. The later tights from TKMaxx come in 5 sizes up to XL, but the earlier ones came in 6 sizes up to XXL. However XL is big enough for me, so I am not worried.

I am pretty impressed with these tights, as I have been with all the other Falke tights (Seidenglatt, Shelina) that I have tried. I am glad I followed the advice I was given in Chat, even though it took me a year or more to get round to wearing the ones that were recommended.