Relax

by Geraden

Last night the gritters had been out, and surely enough, there was a touch of frost on the lawn when I awoke today. Opaques today, I thought, and duly pulled on some Silkies Microfiber ones. Dark brown, and fresh out of the packet. These are good tights, some of the best opaques I know of, though they do cling a bit to certain types of fabric. It is not static, just fibres getting friendly and holding hands. I could have lived with that, but when I got to work, the temperature had risen to that of a warm spring day, and these microfibre opaques were much too hot under trousers.

Fortunately I keep a supply of tights at work, so when I decided to change, I selected an unopened packet of Levante Relax tights. I bought these many months ago for £2.99 in TKMaxx (retail price £5.99) and had been waiting for an opportunity of trying them. I do try not to have too many opened packets on the go at the same time, as I have a smallish drawer full of sheers and a large drawer partly full of opaques at home. That is besides all the unopened packets, some at home and some at work.

The only problem was of course changing. The best place to change at work is the disabled toilet – lots of space and running water in the handbasin too, for moistening the hands to ease your tights up. I did not have that luxury today, just an ordinary male WC, with no room to swing a cat. Putting on a brand new pair of tights is harder than putting on a pair that has already been worn and washed. Fortunately I have had a lot of practice at putting on tights standing up. Still, I had to go out of the cubicle to wet my hands to get the fit right in all the important places.

So here are my thoughts about Levante Relax:

They are lovely tights. They look good out of the packet, though being semi-boarded and nicely folded, it quickly becomes obvious that the toe seams are rotated 90° to the body. This means that you have to put a quarter twist in each leg as you put them on, but this is my only criticism. They have a reinforced toe and brief, a gusset and a deep waistband. The look is neither shiny nor matt, but is accurately described as 'satin'. They feel nice and smooth to wear, unlike the rough feel of some support tights. The support factor is not stated, but feels a bit firmer than 8, which is the norm for medium support tights. The denier is also not stated but I would guess around 15; the lycra content is 16%. The fit of XTall is a bit short for me at 6'4", but they do come in XXTall as well.

And I am happy wearing them: just a little warmth from them but not too much, and they glide beautifully under my trousers. My legs are indeed feeling very relaxed in them, and so am I.

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