Hypothesis: Coloured tights are fun.

My new craze of the moment, along with knee-high socks, are coloured tights. Up until about a month ago, whenever I wore a skirt and it was so cold outside I could see icicles dropping off people's noses, I'd wear plain, boring, transparent, black tights. Either the silky ones so my skirt wouldn't ride up or just the 'mousse' ones because they tended to tear less.

I was a black-tight clone, and life was drab. Until, one beautiful Saturday afternoon a month ago, I decided, "Right, from this day onward, I shall revolutionise my life." I stepped into Camaïeu and got stunning red opaque tights which would forever spice up my outfits on skirt-days.

(Well those on the picture are actually from American Apparel but they look pretty much the same)

But I would not stop here. I decided to walk into H&M and that's when I spotted more. Superman-blue shiny tights, as well as minty-green ones. I NEEDED them. I needed colour back in my life as I was having severe withdrawal symptoms from visual stimulus.

I wear the blue or green tights (they are very very bright indeed, and my friends claim they can see me from the other end of the city) with dark-wash thigh-high denim skirts for a casual look, or with black thigh-high dresses and black flats for more sophistication. (I contemplated wearing the tights with silver ballet-flats but was worried I would look like a Wonderwoman clone.)

As for the red tights, I assemble them with a short dark blue pleated skirt, black and white stripy sailor top and pig-tails. American Eagle meets Sailor Moon, I guess. But not too many colours, wouldn't want to look like a circus clown.

The outfit really depends on the shade and how lightly-coloured the tights are.

If you're thinking of wearing wacky, bright shades like fuschia, sky-blue or lime-green, go low-key and darker on the colour of your outfit. I'd say black is a safe bet for a dress, but as I've said, dark-wash denim is great too. Grey or white would make other people blind.

If you're thinking of wearing darker coloured tights, though, like dark burgundy or dark forest-green, you can go a bit more sunshiny on the general outfit or dress you're wearing. If I'm wearing really darkly-coloured tights, I like to wear a dress that's got a lighter shade of that colour. Like the lightly-coloured tights, however, they'll brighten up any outfit, so you can even wear these dark shades with more sombre clothes.

While accessorising your outfit, in some cases, wackiness may call for more wackiness. But don't go overboard with accessories: remember that coloured-tights are an accessory themselves. A rule I keep in mind is, a maximum of two accessories when I wear funky-coloured tights. When I wear my superman-blue tights with a denim skirt and a black top, for instance, I go for big, silver dangle earrings and perhaps a bright blue scarf. But that's it. You wouldn't want people going off to the ophtamologist every two seconds on your account.

Conclusion: Coloured tights can be fun with careful accessorising and good colour-coordination.