Fashion girls are taking their looks to the next level with sheer knee-high socks

I bought a new mini-skirt and went right out. But the legs are too long for an autumn outfit. Pairing it with tights would make wearing a miniskirt more obvious. But street style maven Chloe King tells me I should try sheer knee-high socks (or stockings, as my grandmother used to call them) instead.

King, a luxury retail professional who can always be found in the best fashion week street style roundups on the Internet, has become the unofficial face (or rather, leg) of the burgeoning knee-socks trend. This fashion darling wears mini shorts and jackets as dressers, styled with sheer socks. I've tried loafers with a more masculine accent, but super high heels are more fun,” King wrote me in an e-mail.

“With hemlines getting shorter (and shorter) in the last few seasons, there's a parade of runway models and celebrities in micro-mini skirts, hot pants, and often no pants. Plus, the transparency-to-skin gradient adds a new texture to the look, making it a more unexpected choice than tight."

Who would have guessed that nylon stockings would be a trend in 2024?

Transparent knee-highs are curvy, but that's exactly why they work so well with short, seductive hemlines. There's something delightfully confusing about adding knee-highs to a look,” says King. Sheer nylons add a touch of sexy glamour as well as nuance, like something out of Grandpa's closet.” If a styling decision is too wrong, it cycles into something very right.

King has mastered the tightrope walk between ill-fitting and really good outfits. She has a knack for knowing the finishing touches that make an outfit sing, whether it's a quirky little chapeau or a pair of dangling cherry earrings. Remember the brooch craze in street style at last season's New York Fashion Week?

That's all I'm going to say: King knows a thing or two about the right way to level up a look. And if a trendsetter recommends adding sheer knee socks to your arsenal, that's style advice you'll want to listen to.

But she's not the only one using knee socks as a clever styling hack. An examination of recent Fashion Month street style shows knee-high black fishnets in New York, sheer white nylons in London, and gorgeous stockings paired with phenomenal platform heels in Paris.

Once off the city sidewalks and onto the runway, Christian Dior models rarely walk without sheer black stockings to complement their modish miniskirts and sharply pleated shorts. The same goes for Cecilie Bernsen, but the Danish designer prefers to wear her signature girlish puffball dress with knee-high tights. King also adds Simone Rocha to the mix: “I'm all about classic black sheer, but the thigh-high nude tights in the Spring '25 show are turning my gears about new shades and proportions.”

King's style is also a little more feminine than the classic black tights, but she's still a fan of the knee-high tights.

I am also a fan of knee-length stockings and have a pair of sheer black stockings that I purchased on a whim on Amazon last August for fall layering. Since then, I've found that they work well with tailored Bermuda shorts for fall work wear, and maxi skirts with leg slits are a fun chance to show off those translucent calves. And if I'm drawn to a darker, angstier style and want to reconnect with my Tumblr-raised roots, I'll turn on my Arctic Monkeys “knee socks” and wear them with a pair of lug-soled black boots. [Sheer knee socks are a Fall 2024 trend worth trying. They make an outfit feel more fun and may be the key to opening up a new, more playful level of your personal style. Or, at the very least, you might want to reach out to your grandmother, the muse of the original sheer pantyhose.