I love these winter months, if for no other reason than ’tis the season to get your legs out. Last year we saw the introduction of the coloured opaque; this year, everyone is going crazy for leg-wear in all shapes, colours and patterns. Inexpensive, highly effective, and now available in insane amounts of variety, tights have become an accessory in themselves. Embroidered, woollen, patterned, lace, wet-look, knee highs, over-the-knee, hold ups… they’re all in fashion, and best of all, are all readily available!

This variety means that, if you fancy, your tights can become as big a feature as your dress or shoes. 2008’s latest pop offering, The Saturdays (the dregs of S Club Juniors meets the staff of Romford New Look), have made coloured opaques their trademark. I’m not sure whether their Opal Fruit-inspired styling is saccharine but harmless, or just a load of bollocks. Jury’s out.

Personally, I have a strong bond with the contents of my hosiery drawer, but it’s taken me a good while to source out the pairs that suit me and my wallet best.

Originally I was dead set against online shopping for tights. I love wandering into Oxford Circus TopShop, heading straight to the back and basking in the squillion varieties of eye-wateringly beautiful hosiery they have to offer. The same with good old Marks & Spencer, and even H&M (although I find H&M limited to mostly grey and black, and tend to bag at the ankles after a few wears – you have been warned!)

The other reason I preferred seeing my tights in the flesh before buying is the opportunity to sneak them out their packages and cop a good feel (this may be just me). Itchy tights are not going to last the night with me, sub-zero temperatures or not.

It is this way that I discovered the unheralded hero of the High Street… you may (or may not) be surprised to learn that the wondrous Primark have created a treasure – in my opinion, the ultimate black ribbed (or plain) ‘body control’ opaques. They’re a great colour and thickness, seriously hold you in thanks to a ‘Spanx’ style top, they don’t bag at the ankles, and who’s to argue at £3 a pair!

And then came the online shopping phenomena, rudely shifting me from my hosiery comfort zone and into the harsh gamblers world of virtual tights shopping. Happily, I have since discovered a few incredible, good-value sites that would just be plain rude not to share with you.

The first is tightsplease.co.uk. They cleverly source the best brands of leg-wear for you, and offer them at a price that beats the high street. tightsplease have constant discounts and often free-delivery offers, for example at the moment they are offering 5% off £25 spend minimum until 19th Dec (Just enter TPXMAS08 at the checkout). I’ll keep you updated with latest offers from them.

The second is lovecolour-lovetights.com. Now this is really something! You pretty much get to customise your own leg-wear from scratch. Prices start from a modest £4 and delivery is fairly cheap. And, for an even cheaper bill, if you sign up to their newsletter, they’ll send you offers and discounts too!

It looks like statement tights, the unsung hero of the winter wardrobe, are here to stay. Despite remaining loyal to my trusty black pair, I do find myself tempted to pull out those saucy tartan opaques I tried so hard to forget.

I will if you will….