do I need to wear nylons to a job interview … or are bare legs OK?

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager.

A reader writes:

I am gearing up for an interview next week and was considering wearing a dress, despite usually going the jacket route. But I’m wondering: do people still wear nylons with dresses, or are bare legs acceptable these days in an interview? I haven’t bought or seen people wearing nylons in a long time it seems, yet bare legs just feel intuitively unprofessional to me. Help!

You’re fine either way.

There are some variations on this by region and generation, but in general bare legs are totally fine and not considered unprofessional … but it’s also fine to wear nylons (also known as pantyhose or stockings) if you prefer them. I’m sure there is some extremely conservative industry out there that still expects something covering your legs, but that’s very much an outlier. Bare legs with dresses are commonplace now.

If you don’t want bare legs, tights are a more modern-looking option than nylons (tights are more opaque than nylons and aren’t designed to look like your skin). But any of these options are fine.