Hollis Johnson / Business
- British startup Heist Studios developed seven shades of "nude" tights after a two-year survey in which 100,000 women submitted images of their skin to help determine what "nude" looked like.
- Data scientists matched the various skin swatches to RGB color codes and mapped out the data to reveal distinct clusters, or in this case, shades of nude.
- Seven women tested the different shades of The Nude tights ($36) to see if the tights actually matched their legs.
- Most of our testers felt that the shades they chose were close matches while some thought the tights were too deep and didn't match their skin tones. Everyone agreed that that the 18 denier yarn was soft yet durable.
British startup Heist Studios was founded on the idea that womens' bodies are different shapes, sizes, and colors, and that our hosiery should be designed that way.
In 2015, the company launched The Thirty and The Fifty, black tights that ranged in US sizes 0 to 20, and with the option of a high or low waistband. Two years later, Heist was ready to tackle yet another overlooked pocket in the industry - nude tights.
It's not rocket science that "nude" is not a one-shade-fits-all color, so Heist approached the issue as if it was one. Toby Darbyshire, founder and CEO of Heist Studios, told Insider Picks, "Our insight was that unless there existed a data-driven breakdown of a statistically viable cross section of the female population, the fashion industry would be incapable of providing nude shades that matched their customers skin tones."
Heist Studios
Heist started the The Nude Project, working with data scientists to collect and analyze images of skin that 100,000 women submitted anonymously and voluntarily. The swatches were then matched against a computerized RGB color code so that they could be analyzed and mapped, revealing about 1,000 unique skin tones from its participants.
Data scientists grouped these skin tones into seven distinct clusters, which was used to determine the different shades of "nude" in Heist's Nude Tights ($36). The tights are made with 18 denier yarn, which makes them ultra-sheer and silky smooth. Like The Thirty and The Fifty, The Nude comes with the option of a high or low waistband.
Heist is causing ripples in the hosiery industry for its extensive study, but there's undoubtedly skepticism that 100,000 skin tones can be represented in just seven different shades, so we asked seven women with diverse skin tones to test the tights and see if they were a match.
In the photos below, we're wearing The Nude Tights on our left leg and compared it with our bare right leg.
Here's what we thought about the Heist Nude Tights:
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