By Soni Panda x

I am feeling in a festive mood today, so I am slipping into my Gio Sparkle Seam Stockings! I know we don’t have much of a Christmas here in the UK, however I always feel dressing up helps!

These beauties were gifted to me from my Amazon Wishlist, and as they are no longer available there, I have added the link to the Gio company for you.

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The Spec

Colour: Black / Silver

Size: 9.5

Denier: 15

Materials: 100% Nylon

Price: £36.00

Website: Gio – Sparkle Seam Fully Fashioned Stockings

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My Outfit

A little party outfit I got going on here; I paired up my stockings with a cute white mini dress, a glitzy belt and kept it simple with black sandals. I could have worn silver to really set it off, however I don’t have barely there silver sandals at the moment!

My Deets

Dress: In The Style

Belt: Primark

Stockings: Gio

Heels: Fashion Thirsty

The Review

From The Website: Our Sparkle Seam stockings offer an alternative look to the Fully Fashioned stocking. Made from 100% Nylon they are defined by a contrasting sparkling seam running up the back of the leg. Our Fully fashioned stockings are manufactured in England on original Reading machines; we recommend them to be worn with one of our 6 strap suspender belts to enhance the look of the stockings and to ensure a secure fit. These sheer stockings are 15 denier.

The Packaging

Getting Them On: I got the hosiery gloves out, ready to get my stockings on! I did my scrunch and roll, taking care going over my anklets. I also took it slow, so I could line up my seams correctly before setting in place.

On The Legs: okay so I have a fair bit to say about this pair. Let me start off with the negatives so they are out the way with:

• They have many weird markings all over the legs – I thought I had created them but as I was wearing gloves, there was no way I could have. They are all over both legs, which I have to say look really bad.
• The seams have a double dotted line on either side, which starts randomly and ends randomly parallel to the seam. I wasn’t too sure what the purpose of this was, but I did not like it.
• I was pretty appalled at the quality of this pair. This is one of their expensive ranges, and I ended up with one that was poor quality. I was looking forward to wearing these all day, however they looked terrible.
• The backseam is slightly wonky once the point/pyramid heel finishes. I was super sad about that as it’s super noticeable!

Okay so now that is out the way with, let me talk about the good points:

• I did like the sheer denier on the legs, especially with a great sparkly backseam. This worked from the toe seams all the way to the welt.
• The fit was great, and worked well for me. This pair sat higher up the thighs, which meant I could clasp it super high, so I could style them with a mini dress. Normally I wouldn’t be able to, but this time I could.
• The feel of them were super smooth on the legs, so I didn’t have any issues with that. Again with the backseam, as this was sewn on top and not in with the stockings, this means that the lurex material used won’t itch your skin.

I did also test the flash on this pair to see if they had any shine to them, and sadly they didn’t. A lot of it was the shine from my legs coming through rather than the stockings, however that backseam looked super shiny in the light!

Now as these were a slightly larger size, I did have a few wrinkles occur around the knees and ankles, however they weren’t too bad or noticeable.

The Toes & Ankle: okay so another part of the stockings I was a little annoyed with. Firstly, I have the backseam coming out from the toe seams, which is super hard to tuck under your toes. I was contemplating cutting it off, however I didn’t want to undo any stitching, so I left it. The worst thing is that the amount that was sticking out, is the amount missing from the top of the seam where the welt begins. That extra part literally needs to be pushed up to have the perfect complete seam.

Moving on from that, the toe area looked amazing. I had a good cap on the toes at the front, and it worked into a full sole panel, leading to a point/pyramid heel. I did like the look of the darker RHT on the stockings, as it worked so well with the contrast backseam.

I had plenty of wiggle room for my toes to move and breathe, and around the feet I had a smooth finish. I did end up with a few wrinkles around the ankles, but no biggie there as I didn’t mind it.

The Bands: okay onto the welts here. I have that slight reinforced band just sitting an inch under the main welt. This also did annoy me as it isn’t perfect; it has some dots in the band missing and it looked a little messy to me. I then saw that some of the sparkle seam with missig at the top.

I did like that my clasps hooked on well to the welt, so they didn’t budge at all during the day. I did scrunch it a little and clasp on as I had some extra material to play with here.

Apart from that – all good!

My Thoughts?

These really did test me today I have to say. I do really like them, however I felt they had more flaws than good points to them. I would understand if it was an imperfect pair, but these weren’t at all! I don’t think I would recommend them if they all look like this!