MANZIHosiery since 1997

Hosiery by the number

Every MANZI pair, sorted by denier

486 shades across 308 pairs, from 8 denier sheers you forget you are wearing to 400 denier fleece-lined tights for the coldest bus stop. Pick the number first. The shade, the waist and the foot come after.

486shades with a price
308distinct pairs
10denier steps
S to 5XLadult sizes
4 to 14girls' ages

8 to 30 denier

Sheer: the pair that reads as skin

Below 30 denier the leg shows through and the yarn is finer than a hair. MANZI sheers run 8, 10, 15, 20 and 30 denier, in the nude scale and in black, most of them in packs of two, three or six. A control top holds the stomach flat. A sheer-to-waist pair leaves no line under a fitted dress.

A sheer pair does not survive a ring or a dry heel, and no sheer ever has. That is why the pack exists.

Between two sizes, take the larger: a sheer stretched too far turns lighter and runs sooner.

40 to 120 denier

Semi-opaque and opaque: a solid colour from across the room

At 40 denier a little leg still shows. At 70 the colour is solid and the knit is a soft microfiber. At 120 the pair behaves like a legging. The MANZI edit keeps to the classic shades here, black first, then navy, coffee and grey.

Opaque is not warm. For January the fleece-lined bench is the right one. A 70 denier pair is for March and October.

Microfiber forgives a size on the boundary. A sheer in the same case would want the size up.

200 to 400 denier

Fleece-lined and fake translucent: warmth that photographs like a sheer

A fake translucent pair is a thick fleece lining knitted under a skin-tone layer that, from a metre away, reads as a 20 denier sheer. The plain fleece-lined blacks and the footed leggings do the same job without the illusion.

Fleece holds air, which is also its limit: on a heated train these pairs are too much.

Fleece-lined pairs run small because the lining stretches less than the shell. At the top of a size, go up one.

The shade chart

Nude is a scale, not a colour

The whole shade chart

The MANZI knitting floor names its skin tones the way the floor always has: natural, light suntan, suntan, tan, coffee. Each tile leads to every pair knitted in that shade.

Class and stage

Convertible dance tights, adult and girls

The dance bench

Buy buttons open the pair at our retail partner in a new tab.

Above and below the knee

Thigh highs, knee highs and the pairs with a pattern

All pairs

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The size chart

One chart for the whole range

Fit notes for every bench

Sizes follow height and weight, not dress size. The table below is the one printed on every MANZI pack. The fit notes on each bench say which way to round.

SizeHeightWeightPairs on this site
S4'11" to 5'4"95 to 125 lb51
M5'2" to 5'7"115 to 150 lb62
L5'4" to 5'9"140 to 175 lb66
XL5'6" to 5'11"165 to 200 lb78
S/M and L/XLtwo rows joinedtwo rows joined206
2XL to 5XL, plusper the plus chartper the plus chart109
Girls 4 to 14per the age band103

Straight answers

What people ask before they open the pack

  • What does denier mean?

    Denier is the weight in grams of 9,000 metres of the yarn. A low number is a thin yarn and a sheer pair. A high number is a thick yarn and an opaque or fleece-lined pair. The scale on this site runs from 8 to 400.

  • Which MANZI sheer is the most everyday one?

    The 20 denier control-top pair, sold in packs of six. It is sheer enough to look like skin and thick enough to last a working day. The 15 denier is finer and dressier. The 30 denier is the one for a commute.

  • Do MANZI tights run small?

    The sheers run true to the height-and-weight chart. Fleece-lined pairs run small because the lining does not stretch as far as the shell. Between two sizes, take the larger one, except for dance tights, which are meant to fit close.

  • What is a control top?

    A knitted panel in the brief that holds the stomach flat and gives the waistband something to grip. It is not shapewear. A sheer-to-waist pair has no panel and no visible line under a fitted dress.

  • Why does the site sell packs of six?

    Because sheer yarn breaks. A 15 or 20 denier pair that catches a ring at lunchtime needs a twin in the drawer, and the pack price per pair is lower than the single.

  • Does a convertible dance pair replace a footed one?

    For most classes, yes. The opening under the arch rolls back for barefoot work and forward for the shoe. Some studios ask for a plain footed pair on stage, and those are on the same bench.

  • Where do I pay, and who ships?

    Every buy button opens the pair at our retail partner in a new tab. Payment, delivery, exchanges and returns all happen there, under that partner's terms.

  • How often are prices updated?

    On a schedule, and the date of the last update is printed in the footer of every page. A pair with no current price is taken off the site rather than shown as unavailable.