Paper Monitor
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
For some, the answer is an emphatic "no". For others, it is an equally emphatically "yes". Yet more are now wavering, wondering if their initial assessment was in fact wrong. Perhaps sensing that the nation needs answers, and quick, the Daily Telegraph has devoted almost an entire page to the burning question of our age: "Dare you wear footless tights?"
Summer might have been and gone, but the street trend of that season remains with us. Early adopters might have moved on (or not) but many more have found their resistance wavering in the face of the continuing onslaught.
"We noted them on the catwalks in March and willed them to go away," writes the paper's fashion expert. "Instead, the jumped-up longjohn is more popular than ever... we're floundering in fashion hell, fearing to ask the question: when, if ever, is one too old to wear leggings?"
Now Paper Monitor does wonder if this is a question that has crossed many a Telegraph reader's mind, but the expert verdict is that "it's your legs, not your age, that count".
"Saga editor Emma Soames was recently spotted looking sharp in footless tights, confirming there is no age limit."
And a style guru from New Look recommends that women of un certain age (that'll be all those over 30 then) wear them with a knee-length skirt, ankle boots and a gap between tights and boots to show a bit of skin. "That refreshes the look." Yikes.
Before you rush out and buy a pair with the Telegraph's blessing, be warned. There is a list of rules to be abided by, lest one look foolish and square (any trend that comes with regulations is rarely a good idea in Paper Monitor's book).
But perhaps it can be taken as cautionary that none of the celebs snapped looking gorgeous in - or in spite of - their footless tights have a copy of the Telegraph clamped under one arm.