Leg Avenue vs Music Legs: which one to buy

Lingerie is the category where the product page tells you least and the purchase depends most on what it left out. You cannot try it on, you cannot return it once worn, and the two things that decide whether it works, what size it actually is and what it is actually made of, are the two things a listing is most likely to skip. We sell both of these brands, so we can count exactly how often each one skips them.

Leg Avenue and Music Legs sit next to each other in every shop that carries either. They look like the same kind of company: American, legwear-first, similar prices, similar shelves. In our catalog they behave very differently, and the difference is not the one you would guess from the packaging.

If You Only Have 30 Seconds

• You want stockings, tights or hold-ups: Leg Avenue, and it is not close. 97 of its 212 products are legwear against 30 of 155.
• You want to know what you are buying before it arrives: Leg Avenue. It states a material on 179 products and gives the actual fibre percentages on 145. Music Legs gives a percentage on none of its listings.
• You need a size that is not "one size": read the size section before anything else. Both brands lean heavily on one-size, and this is where most disappointment in this category comes from.
• You want a costume rather than lingerie: Music Legs. Roughly a fifth of its range is costume, a corner Leg Avenue barely enters.
• You are shopping on price: look again at the table. The brand that documents less has the higher median price here, which is the opposite of what usually happens.

Uncomfortable truth: most of what either brand sells is one size, and "one size" is a decision the manufacturer made to avoid stocking a size run, not a description of your body. Of the Leg Avenue products that state a size at all, 76 of 102 are one size. If you are not near the middle of the size range this category was cut for, that single fact matters more than every other row in the table.

A note on method before the table. None of these figures come from brand websites. We counted, product by product, what each listing in our own live catalog states in its own product information. And one distinction that turns out to matter enormously here: a listing can have a material field and leave it saying "not specified". That is not the same as having no field, and we count the two separately, because a blank field is a decision and an absent one is an omission.

Stock counts and coverage measured on 02-09-2026 across our live catalog. In brackets, how many products of each brand publish that figure. The blank-field row counts listings that have a material field and leave it as "not specified": the field is there and it tells you nothing, which is not the same as having no field at all. What is not published, we say so: an honest gap beats an invented number.

Two Legwear Brands That Sell Different Things

Both brands are American, both are named for legwear, both sit in the same price bracket. Then you count what is actually on the shelf and the overlap turns out to be smaller than the reputation suggests.

What each catalog is made of

Leg Avenue is a legwear brand that also does lingerie. Of its 212 products in stock, 97 are stockings, tights, hold-ups or similar, 37 are bodystockings or bodysuits, and 31 are two-piece sets. Costume is a rounding error: 7 products.

Music Legs is broader and shallower in each corner. Of its 155, legwear is 30, sets are 32, dresses 19, and costume is 29, which is close to a fifth of the range. It is the same shop selling stockings, a bunny outfit and a Santa dress, and that is a legitimate business, just not the same one.

So the first question to ask is not which brand is better but what you came for. For legwear specifically, Leg Avenue offers roughly three times the choice. For a costume, Music Legs is the only one of the two with a real range.

The price shape, and the surprise in it

Leg Avenue runs $8–188 and Music Legs $7–127, so Leg Avenue reaches higher at the top. But the median tells a different story: $28 for Leg Avenue against $32 for Music Legs.

Read that against the documentation rows and it is genuinely unusual. The brand with the higher typical price is the one that tells you less about what you are buying: material stated on 49 of 155 against 179 of 212, and fibre percentages on none of its listings against 145. In most categories the premium option documents better, because documentation is cheap and it is how you justify a price. Here it runs the other way.

We are not going to turn that into an accusation. Music Legs' median is dragged up by its costumes and dresses, which cost more than a pair of tights and always will, and comparing medians across two differently shaped catalogs is exactly the kind of arithmetic this guide warns about elsewhere. What survives the objection is the documentation gap itself, which does not depend on price at all.

What that means when you are the one buying

If you buy from Leg Avenue you will usually know the fibre composition and often the size convention before you order. If you buy from Music Legs you will usually know neither, and you will be relying on the photograph and the product name.

For a costume worn once, that may be fine. For hosiery, which lives or dies on how it stretches and how it feels against skin for a whole evening, it is a real disadvantage, and it is the reason this comparison ends where it does.

Size: The Row That Decides Everything

If you read one section of this page, read this one. Size is the only specification in lingerie that can make a purchase useless, it is the one both brands publish least, and the way it is published hides the part that matters.

How often size is stated at all

Leg Avenue states a size on 102 of its 212 listings and Music Legs on 45 of 155. Neither is good, and we would rather say that plainly than dress it up: on roughly half of one catalog and seven listings in ten of the other, you are ordering a garment without the shop telling you what size it is.

Music Legs also has 14 listings where the size field exists and says "not specified", against 1 at Leg Avenue. That is worth separating from a missing field, because a blank field is somebody deciding not to fill it in.

Where the size is stated, we can tell you exactly what it says, and this is the finding of the section.

"One size" is not a size

Of the 102 Leg Avenue listings that state a size, 76 say one size, one size fits all, one size fits most, or a variation on that phrase. Only 24 offer an actual size run. At Music Legs the split is 17 against 20, with 8 more giving an answer that is neither, like "varies" or a single measurement.

So the dominant answer in this category is not a size, it is the absence of one. And the phrases are not interchangeable, even though they get used as if they were. "One size" says the garment comes in a single cut. "One size fits most" is the same garment with an admission attached. Neither tells you the measurements it was cut for, and neither brand publishes those.

What one size really means in practice is a stretch garment designed around the middle of a size range that the manufacturer never states. For fishnets and stretch hosiery that works for a wide span of bodies, which is why the convention exists and why it is not a scam. For structured pieces, bodystockings, sets with a fixed cut, it works for a much narrower one, and nothing on the listing tells you which of the two you are looking at.

Plus sizes, counted honestly

Listings that name a plus size explicitly, an XXL, a 3X, a queen size: 3 at Leg Avenue and 6 at Music Legs, out of 212 and 155. Those numbers are small on both sides and we are not going to round them up into a range.

Music Legs is the better of the two here in proportion, and there is one thing the two brands do identically that is worth knowing: every plus-size piece in both catalogs sits in the cheapest band, with a single exception. That is convenient if you are shopping on price and awkward if you wanted a plus-size version of something at the top of the range, because it does not exist. If you need a named plus size, start from those listings and expect a short list.

What to do with all that

Three rules that follow from the numbers rather than from opinion. First, if a listing says one size and the garment is structured rather than stretchy, treat it as a medium and buy accordingly. Second, if you are outside the middle of the range, filter for the listings that state a size run before you filter for anything else, because that shortlist is short. Third, measure yourself once and keep the numbers, because on the rare listing that does give a size run, the run is what you will be matching against, and no brand in this category uses your national sizing without saying so.

Material, and the Field That Says Nothing

What a garment is made of decides how it stretches, how warm it is, whether it survives a wash, and whether it feels like something you want against you for four hours. It is also the specification where the two brands diverge hardest.

Who tells you, and who has a field for it

Leg Avenue states a material on 179 of 212 listings. Music Legs on 49 of 155. That gap is large on its own, and the next number is the one that explains it.

87 Music Legs listings have a material field and leave it saying "not specified". Leg Avenue has 12. So it is not that Music Legs uses a different template without a material row: the row is there, on most of the catalog, and it has been left blank. A missing field is an omission. A field that has been filled in with "not specified" is a decision, and it is the single most telling number on this page about how each brand treats the person buying.

Percentages, or just a word

There is a second gap inside the first. Stating "nylon" tells you the family. Stating "92% nylon, 8% elastane" tells you how it will stretch and how it will hold shape, which is the part you can actually use.

Leg Avenue gives fibre percentages on 145 of its 212 listings. Music Legs gives them on none. That is not a gap, it is an absence: on the Music Legs side, when a material is stated at all, it is a word, fishnet, lace, satin, lycra, and never a composition.

What the fibres actually do

• Nylon (polyamide): the backbone of hosiery. Strong for its weight, takes dye well, dries fast. Declared on 133 Leg Avenue listings.
• Elastane (also sold as spandex or Lycra): the stretch. A few per cent changes a garment completely, and it is the difference between one-size that works and one-size that does not. Declared on 95 at Leg Avenue.
• Polyester: cheaper, less breathable, holds print and shine well. Common in costume pieces on both sides.
• Lace, satin, fishnet: these are constructions rather than fibres, which is why a listing that says only "lace" has told you what it looks like and not what it is made of.

That last point is worth sitting with, because it is most of the Music Legs material data. "Fishnet" describes a knit. It could be nylon with elastane or polyester without it, and those two garments behave nothing alike after three washes.

Elastane is where the size question and the material question meet

These two sections of the guide look separate and they are the same problem. "One size" only works because the garment stretches, and what makes it stretch is the elastane. So the honest way to judge a one-size listing is to look at its composition, and that is possible on exactly one side of this comparison.

Leg Avenue declares elastane, spandex or Lycra on 95 of its 212 listings, and where it publishes a percentage the elastane content sits mostly between 4 and 11 per cent, with a median of 7. Music Legs declares it on 5. So on the Leg Avenue side you can look at a one-size pair of tights and see whether the claim is credible; on the Music Legs side, one size is a claim you either accept or you do not.

That is the practical reason the documentation gap matters more here than it would in a category where you can return things. It is not about transparency as a virtue. It is that the one specification that tells you whether the size claim holds is the one specification most of one catalog does not publish.

What Music Legs does say, when it says anything

Where it names a material at all, Music Legs tends to name a construction rather than a fibre: fishnet on 12 listings, lace on 6, satin on 5, polyester on 7. Those are useful words, they are just answering a different question than the one the field is for.

We are pointing this out as a fact about the listings, not as an accusation about the garments. A fishnet described only as "fishnet" can be excellent. You will simply be finding out how it stretches by wearing it.

Why we are not turning this into a verdict on quality

Documentation is not construction. A garment with a blank material field can be perfectly well made, and one with a full composition can still be flimsy. What the numbers on this page measure is how much you can know before you spend, and nothing else. We have no basis for telling you which brand's stitching lasts longer, and neither has anyone else who has not tested them side by side.

What we can say is that if the composition matters to you, for allergies, for warmth, for how something will wash, then one of these two catalogs will answer you on two thirds of its range and the other will answer you almost never.

What the Garment Names Actually Mean

This category has more names than shapes, and the names are used loosely by everyone including us. Here is what each one is, how many of each we hold from these two brands, and which of them the "one size" convention actually suits.

Legwear, which is most of this comparison

Tights (pantyhose in American usage) run from toe to waist in one piece. Stockings stop at the thigh and need something to hold them up, which is where a garter belt comes in. Hold-ups (thigh highs) are stockings with a silicone or elastic band that does that job themselves. Knee highs and ankle socks are what they sound like.

Between the two brands, legwear is 97 listings at Leg Avenue and 30 at Music Legs. It is also the group where one size works best, because the whole garment is stretch knit, and the group where the elastane percentage tells you most: a hold-up with too little of it slides down all evening, and no photograph will warn you.

Bodystockings and bodysuits

A bodystocking is a single piece covering torso and legs, usually sheer or net. A bodysuit or teddy stops at the hip. A catsuit is the opaque version of a bodystocking.

Leg Avenue holds 37 of these and Music Legs 13. This is the category where one size is most likely to disappoint, because the garment has to work along the whole torso at once: height matters as much as width, and no listing in either catalog publishes the length it was cut for. If you are tall, this is the group to be most careful with.

Sets, and what "two piece" hides

Sets are 31 listings at Leg Avenue and 32 at Music Legs, and it is the loosest word on this page. A set can be a bra and a thong, a top and a skirt, or a five-piece outfit with stockings and gloves included. The listing name usually says, and where it does not, the "includes" field sometimes does, though only on 2 and 9 listings respectively.

Sets are also the pieces with the most fitting risk, because two garments have to work at once on the same body. If you buy a set in one size, you are making the one-size bet twice.

Costume, which is a different purchase

Costume is 29 listings at Music Legs and 7 at Leg Avenue. It is worth naming as its own thing because the buying criteria invert: for a costume, the look is the product, the material barely matters, and the size only has to work for one evening. Everything this guide says about fibre composition can be safely ignored in this corner.

Accessories

Gloves, chokers, garter belts sold separately, headpieces: 10 at Leg Avenue and 6 at Music Legs. Low risk, low price, and the easiest way to change how something you already own looks. If you are hesitating over an expensive set, a pair of gloves and the stockings you already have will often get you closer to the same effect.

The Obvious Objection, and What Happens When You Test It

There is an easy explanation for the documentation gap, and it deserves to be taken seriously rather than waved away: the two brands sell different mixes of product. Leg Avenue is mostly legwear and Music Legs has a fifth of its range in costume. If legwear happens to be the easiest thing to document, then the gap is an artefact of what each brand sells and not a difference in how they treat the buyer.

That is testable, so we tested it. Same question, one garment category at a time:

• Legwear: material stated on 90 of 97 Leg Avenue listings, 9 of 30 at Music Legs.
• Bodystockings and bodysuits: 34 of 37 against 4 of 13.
• Sets: 18 of 31 against 8 of 32.
• Costume: 6 of 7 against 12 of 29.

The gap does not close in a single category. It is widest exactly where the mix explanation predicted it would narrow, in legwear, and it survives even in costume, where Music Legs has the larger and more established range. Whatever is driving this, it is not the product mix.

The second thing the same test shows

Look down the Leg Avenue column instead of across, and something else appears: its own worst-documented category is sets, at 18 of 31, against 90 of 97 in legwear. So even the brand that documents well documents its core category best and its peripheral one worst.

That is worth knowing as a shopper, because it means the safest purchase from an information point of view is a brand's speciality, not its price. A mid-range pair of Leg Avenue stockings tells you more about itself than an expensive Leg Avenue set does.

Why we bothered

Because a comparison that only reports the headline number is one objection away from being wrong, and this was the obvious objection. It would have been easier not to run it: the answer confirmed what we had already written, and if it had not, this section would have said so instead.

What Is Not in the Table, and Why

Four things a hosiery buyer would reasonably expect to find on a listing, and which you will not find on either of these brands. We are listing them because knowing what nobody publishes is worth almost as much as knowing what somebody does.

Denier, the specification this category is supposed to have

Denier is the standard measure of yarn thickness in hosiery, and it is the number that tells you whether tights are barely-there sheer or winter opaque. Ten denier is sheer. Forty is semi-opaque. Eighty and up is opaque. It is the one specification that would let you compare two pairs of tights from different brands without seeing them.

Neither brand publishes it. Not on one listing, not on 212 at Leg Avenue and not on 155 at Music Legs. We went looking for it precisely because it is the obvious thing to expect, and the count came back zero on both sides. For a category built on legwear, that is a remarkable absence, and it is the reason opacity in these catalogs is communicated by photograph and by the occasional word in a product name.

Measurements behind "one size"

Covered at length above and worth repeating here: the phrase appears everywhere and the range it was cut for appears nowhere. A brand that published "one size, fits 34 to 42 inch hips" would immediately be the most useful listing in the category, and neither of these does.

What is in the box

For sets and multi-piece items, what you actually receive. It is stated on 2 Leg Avenue listings and 9 at Music Legs, which between two catalogs of 212 and 155 means you are usually inferring it from the product name and the photograph. For a two-piece that is normally fine. For a set photographed with stockings that may or may not be included, it is exactly the ambiguity that produces a disappointed unboxing.

Colour, as a field rather than a photograph

Stated as a specification on 8 listings at Leg Avenue and 23 at Music Legs. Here Music Legs is the better of the two, and it matters more than it sounds: screens differ, black and navy look identical in a photograph, and "nude" is not one colour. Where the field exists, use it; where it does not, assume the photograph is approximate.

Why we do not fill these gaps ourselves

We could estimate a denier from a photograph, or infer a size range from a garment type, and every number we invented would look exactly like the ones we measured. A table where some figures are counted and others are guessed is worse than a table with holes in it, because you can no longer tell which is which. So the holes stay, and they are labelled.

Head to Head by Price Band

Each catalog cut into three by its own prices. In lingerie a price band means something different from a spec tier: the cheap band is hosiery, the expensive one is structured pieces and costume, and a garment is not better made for costing more, it is usually just made of more.

Entry band

Leg Avenue's runs $8–21 with 68 products; Music Legs' runs $7–22 with 51. This is hosiery country on both sides: fishnets, thigh highs, ankle socks, printed tights.

It is also where every plus-size listing in this comparison lives, on both sides, and where Music Legs is at its most competitive: its cheapest tights come in below anything comparable at Leg Avenue. What you give up is knowing what they are made of.

Verdict: if you want fishnets and you want them cheap, Music Legs will do it for less. If you want to know the fibre composition of the fishnets, Leg Avenue is the only one of the two that will tell you, and the difference in price at this level is small enough that most people should pay it.

Mid band

Leg Avenue's mid band, $21–42, holds 72 products; Music Legs', $22–42, holds 52. This is where the two catalogs are least alike.

Leg Avenue's middle is stockings with garter effects, patterned tights, the first bodystockings. Music Legs' middle is sets, dresses and the start of the costume range. Same money, different product, and the choice between them is not a comparison so much as a decision about what you are shopping for.

Verdict: no contest in either direction, because they are barely competing. Decide the garment first; the brand follows from it almost automatically at this level.

Top band

Leg Avenue's top band is $42–188 with 72 products and Music Legs' is $42–127 with 52. Leg Avenue reaches considerably higher, up to $188.

At the top, Leg Avenue is selling elaborate bodystockings and multi-piece sets, and Music Legs is selling costume: dresses, character outfits, complete looks. Both are legitimate ways to spend the money and they are not substitutes for each other in any sense.

Verdict: buy Leg Avenue at the top if you want a piece of lingerie you will wear more than once, and Music Legs if you want an outfit for a specific occasion. The word "premium" is doing no work in this category and we are not going to pretend otherwise.

Reading the bands without being misled

One warning that applies to this whole section. A price band in lingerie is a proxy for how much garment you are buying, not for how well it is made, and the two brands cut their bands at different points because their catalogs are shaped differently. Comparing "mid band to mid band" across them tells you very little; comparing the same garment type across them tells you a lot.

The practical way to use the bands is inside one brand, to see what a step up actually adds. At Leg Avenue a step up adds construction and coverage. At Music Legs it usually means moving from hosiery into costume, which is a change of product rather than an upgrade.

What You Actually Pay For

In toys, paying more buys you engineering. In lubricant, it mostly buys you a smaller bottle. In lingerie it buys you fabric and construction, and that relationship is more honest than in either of the other two, with one important exception.

What the money is doing

Moving up in this category means, roughly in order: more fabric, more pieces, more construction. A pair of tights is one knit garment. A bodystocking is the same knit over a larger surface with a more demanding fit. A set is two or three garments that have to work together. A costume is a set with structure and detailing. The price ladder in both catalogs follows that sequence closely, which is why the bands in the previous section line up so neatly with garment types.

That makes the price question simpler here than elsewhere. You are not deciding how much quality to buy, you are deciding how much garment to buy, and the honest advice is to buy the amount of garment you will actually wear.

The exception, and it is a big one

Paying more does not buy you a better chance of it fitting. The one-size convention runs from the bottom of both catalogs to the top: an expensive bodystocking is as likely to be one size as a cheap pair of tights, and the more expensive garment is the one where one size is a worse bet, because a structured piece has less give.

So the fitting risk rises with the price while the information does not, which is the opposite of how a category should work and the single strongest argument for starting cheap and learning what suits you before spending.

Where the value sits

In both catalogs, the best value is the middle of the legwear range: enough elastane to fit forgivingly, enough construction to last a season, cheap enough that a mistake costs little. It is also the part of the catalog with the most published information, which is not a coincidence: it is the part each brand knows best.

The worst value in either catalog, for most people, is an expensive structured piece in one size bought without measuring anything. It is the most likely to disappoint, the least likely to be worn twice and the hardest to resolve afterwards, and it is where most of the regret in this category lives.

Which One Fits Your Situation

Seven cases that cover most of the people who land here. If you have not settled on a garment type yet, the guide to lingerie by type answers that question first, across the whole category. Each answer says why, so a case that is close but not identical still tells you where you belong.

You want stockings, tights or hold-ups

Leg Avenue. 97 of its 212 listings are legwear against 30 of 155, so the choice is roughly three times wider, and this is the corner where knowing the fibre composition pays off most: how a pair of tights stretches and how they survive a wash is a question about the percentage of elastane, and only one of these two brands publishes it.

You are buying a costume for one night

Music Legs, and stop worrying about the material row. Costume is 29 of its catalog against 7 at Leg Avenue, and for a garment worn once to a party, the fibre composition genuinely does not matter. Buy on the look and on whether the size is stated.

You are not near the middle of the size range

Filter for stated sizes before you filter for anything else, and accept that the list will be short: 24 listings with a real size run at Leg Avenue and 20 at Music Legs. Named plus sizes are 3 and 6, all in the cheapest band on both sides.

The alternative is stretch hosiery, where one size genuinely does cover a wide span. Fishnets and opaque tights with a decent elastane content are the friendliest thing in either catalog for a body outside the middle, and they are also the cheapest, which is a rare alignment.

You react to synthetic fabrics

Leg Avenue, and only from the 145 listings that give percentages. This category is nylon and elastane almost everywhere, with polyester in the costume end, so if you have a specific reaction you already know what to look for; what you need is a listing that tells you what is in it. On the Music Legs side that information does not exist on our pages: 0 listings give a composition.

You want it to last more than a few wears

Buy on fibre content rather than on price, and prefer a stated composition with elastane in it. We are not going to tell you which brand's garments last longer, because we have not tested them and nobody who tells you otherwise has either. What is checkable is that a garment whose composition you know is one you can care for correctly, and the care section below is most of the difference between a season and three.

You are buying a gift and do not know their size

Buy one-size stretch hosiery, or buy something that is not a garment. This is the honest answer and it costs us a larger sale: a structured piece in the wrong size is a gift that gets worn zero times, and in this category you cannot resolve that with a return once it has been tried on. If you want to spend more, spend it on a better pair of stockings rather than on a set that has to fit.

You are buying your first piece and have no reference

Start at the bottom of either catalog with hosiery, and pay attention to what you actually like: opaque or sheer, patterned or plain, thigh high or tights. That is cheap information and it makes every purchase after it better. The mistake is starting with an expensive structured set, because it is the item most likely to fit badly and least likely to teach you anything if it does.

The Costliest Buying Mistakes

Five, ordered by how often they end with something unworn in a drawer.

Reading "one size" as a size. It is a manufacturing decision, not a measurement, and it dominates this category: 76 of the 102 Leg Avenue listings that state a size say some version of it. For stretch hosiery it usually works. For a structured piece it means the garment was cut for one body and you are hoping to be near it. The tell is the fabric: if the composition includes a real proportion of elastane, one size is a reasonable bet; if it is a fixed woven piece, it is a gamble.

Buying a fabric word instead of a fabric. "Lace", "satin" and "fishnet" describe how something looks, not what it is made of. Two fishnet tights, one nylon with elastane and one polyester without, behave completely differently after three washes and neither listing has to tell you which one you are getting. Where a composition is published, read it; where it is not, assume the cheaper construction.

Assuming the pricier brand documents better. In this comparison it is the other way round, and it is the row that surprises people most: $32 median at Music Legs against $28 at Leg Avenue, with material stated on 49 listings against 179. Price is not a proxy for information here and treating it as one costs you twice.

Buying lingerie as a surprise gift in a fitted style. Uncomfortable for a shop to write, because the fitted sets are the expensive end. A garment that has to fit, bought for somebody whose measurements you are guessing, is the highest-risk purchase in this entire catalog, and it cannot be returned once tried. Stretch hosiery, a robe, or a gift card all solve the same intention with none of the risk.

Washing it like the rest of the laundry. The cheapest mistake to avoid and the one that ends most garments early. Hosiery and lace go in a mesh bag, cold, on a gentle cycle, and never in a dryer. That single habit is worth more than the difference between the two brands at any price point, and it is free.

A sixth that is not a mistake but a missed opportunity: not checking whether the listing states a size before you order. It takes a second, it is published on 102 of 212 listings at Leg Avenue and 45 of 155 at Music Legs, and on the ones where it is missing you are buying blind on the single specification that decides whether you can wear it.

Care, Washing and How Long It Lasts

Lingerie is the category where care decides the lifespan more than construction does, and where almost nobody follows the label. Short section, and worth the two minutes.

Hosiery

Hand wash in cool water with a mild detergent, or use a mesh laundry bag on a gentle cycle. Never wring: squeeze the water out and lay flat or hang to dry. Never a dryer, because heat destroys elastane and elastane is what makes the garment fit.

The practical version for people who will not hand wash anything: a mesh bag and a cold gentle cycle gets you most of the benefit for none of the effort, and it is the difference between tights that last a season and tights that ladder on the third wear.

Lace, satin and structured pieces

Hand wash, always, and separately the first time in case the dye runs. Fasten every hook before washing, because an open hook catches lace and tears it. Dry flat and away from direct heat. Do not iron lace; if something needs relaxing, hang it in a steamy bathroom.

What the fibres tell you about care

This is where the composition row pays for itself. Nylon and elastane want cool water and no heat. Polyester tolerates more and holds print better. Anything with a high elastane content loses its stretch permanently if it is dried hot, which is the single most common way a garment dies in this category.

On the 145 Leg Avenue listings that publish percentages you can work out the right treatment before you buy. On most of the Music Legs catalog you cannot, so default to the gentlest option: cool, hand wash, flat dry.

The first wear, which is where most damage happens

More hosiery dies going on than in the wash. Roll the garment down to the toe, put the foot in, and unroll it up the leg rather than pulling it up in one movement, which concentrates all the stress on the parts that are already stretched. Take off rings and check for rough nails or a snagging watch strap first. If you have long nails, put them on with the backs of your fingers.

For anything with hooks, fasten it before it goes over your head or up your legs, not after, and unfasten it before taking it off. Most torn lace in this category is a hook that caught on the way out.

The two-pair habit

If you find hosiery you like and you wear it often, buy two pairs at once and alternate them. Elastane recovers between wears, and a garment that gets a day off between outings keeps its shape noticeably longer than one worn on consecutive days. It is the cheapest life extension available in this category and it costs nothing beyond bringing the second purchase forward.

Storage and when to retire something

Store hosiery rolled rather than folded, away from anything with a hook or a zip, which is what turns one snagged pair into three. Structured pieces keep their shape better hung or laid flat than crumpled in a drawer.

Retire a garment when the elastic goes. A waistband that no longer returns, a stocking top that slides, lace that has gone stiff or yellow: all of those mean the elastane has degraded and no amount of careful washing brings it back. Ladders and small tears in fishnet are cosmetic and yours to decide about; loss of stretch is structural and the garment is done.

How to Read a Lingerie Listing

Four things on a listing carry information in this category and the rest is photography. Once you can find these four, you can judge any garment from any brand in about twenty seconds, including the ones we do not sell.

1. The size line, and what kind of answer it is

There are only three answers: a size run (S/M, L/XL, XXL), one size in one of its phrasings, or nothing. The third is the most common in this category and the second is the most common of the ones that say something. Published on 102 of 212 listings at Leg Avenue and 45 of 155 at Music Legs.

If it says nothing at all, treat the garment as one size, because a brand that offered a size run would have said so.

2. The composition, if there is one

A percentage breakdown is the gold standard and it exists on 145 listings at Leg Avenue and 0 at Music Legs. A single fibre word is second best. A construction word like "lace" or "fishnet" is not a composition at all, however often it appears in a material field.

The one number to look for is the elastane, spandex or Lycra percentage. Anything from about five per cent upward is a genuinely stretchy garment and the one-size claim becomes credible. At zero, one size means one body.

3. The garment name, read in full

Product names in this category are unusually informative because they have to be: "Thigh High Stockings with Back Seam" tells you the shape, the length and the detail. Read past the brand and the adjective. And watch for the words that change the product entirely: "plus size", "XXL", "adjustable", "footless", "crotchless", "open cup". Any of those changes what arrives.

4. The photograph, and what it cannot tell you

The photo is reliable for colour, pattern and rough opacity, and unreliable for everything else. It cannot tell you the stretch, and it is taken on one body, usually a model at the centre of the size range the garment was cut for. A bodystocking that looks long in the picture is long on that person.

What to ignore

"Sexy", "seductive", "elegant", "premium", "high quality". None of them mean anything in this category and they appear at every price. "High-quality fabric" as a material value, which we do find in a handful of listings, is worse than blank, because it occupies the field where the composition should be.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which brand is better, Leg Avenue or Music Legs?

Wrong question in this category, and the honest answer is that they mostly sell different things. For legwear, Leg Avenue: three times the choice and a published fibre composition on 145 listings against 0. For costume, Music Legs, which has 29 costume listings against 7. Where they genuinely compete, cheap hosiery, Music Legs goes lower on price and Leg Avenue tells you more about what you are getting.

Will "one size" fit me?

It depends on the garment, and the listing will not tell you which kind it is, so here is the rule that works. If it is stretch hosiery with elastane in the composition, one size covers a wide span of bodies and probably includes you. If it is a structured piece, a bodystocking, a set, a dress, one size means the garment was cut for the middle of a range nobody publishes. Neither brand states the measurements behind the phrase, and we are not going to invent them.

Why do so few listings give a size?

Because most of the category is made in one size, and where a size run exists the listing does usually say so. The number that should not be normal is the other one: 14 Music Legs listings have a size field and leave it blank, against 1 at Leg Avenue. A field that has been filled in with "not specified" is a choice, not an oversight.

Is Leg Avenue better quality?

We do not know and neither does anyone who has not tested both. Documentation is not construction: a garment with a blank material field can be well made and a fully specified one can be flimsy. What we can measure is how much you can know before you spend, and there Leg Avenue is clearly ahead. Treat that as what it is, an information advantage, not a verdict on stitching.

What does "92% nylon, 8% elastane" actually buy me?

Stretch and recovery. The nylon is the fabric; the elastane is what makes it return to shape instead of bagging at the knee. A higher elastane percentage generally means a more forgiving fit and a garment that holds up better over an evening, which is exactly why it matters on hold-ups and hosiery. It is also the number that tells you how to wash it: elastane is what heat destroys.

Are fishnets one size for real?

Usually yes, and they are the friendliest thing in either catalog for a body outside the middle of the range. The knit stretches in both directions and the construction is forgiving. The caveat is the same as everywhere else: a fishnet with no elastane is much less forgiving than one with it, and only one of these two brands tends to tell you which you are buying.

Can I return lingerie if it does not fit?

Unworn and unopened, our normal returns policy applies and you will find the details on the returns page rather than here, because it varies by country and we would rather point you at the current text than paraphrase it into something out of date. What is universal and worth saying plainly: intimate garments cannot be returned once worn or once the hygiene seal is broken. That is why the size question deserves the attention this page gives it.

What is the difference between stockings and hold-ups?

Stockings need something to hold them up: a garter belt, a suspender, or a bodysuit with clips. Hold-ups (thigh highs) have a silicone or elastic band at the top and stay on their own. Hold-ups are simpler and travel better; stockings with a garter belt hold better on more bodies and look different by design. If you have had hold-ups slide down before, the answer is usually more elastane or a garter belt, not a different brand.

Which is better for a plus size?

Neither has a real plus range, and we would rather say so than sell you a search that ends in nothing. Named plus sizes: 3 listings at Leg Avenue and 6 at Music Legs, all but one in the cheapest band on both sides. The more productive route is stretch hosiery in one size, which genuinely covers a wide span, and avoiding structured pieces unless they state a run.

How do I stop tights laddering?

Most ladders start at a snag, not at a stress point. Take off rings and check for rough nails before putting them on, roll them up your leg rather than pulling, keep them away from anything with a hook in the drawer, and wash them in a mesh bag. None of that is brand-specific and all of it works better than paying more.

Is the costume stuff any good for actual lingerie?

Not really, and it is not trying to be. Costume pieces are cut for an evening and a photograph: the materials are usually polyester, the construction is simpler and the fit is generous rather than precise. That is the right set of trade-offs for a party and the wrong one for something you want to wear repeatedly. Buy costume as costume.

How do I know if tights will be see-through?

From the photograph, and that is not a satisfying answer. The specification that would tell you is denier, and neither brand publishes it on any listing. Some product names carry the word "opaque" or "sheer", 8 at Leg Avenue and 14 at Music Legs, and that is the most reliable signal available. Beyond those, judge from the image and expect a margin of error.

Does the set include the stockings in the picture?

Often not, and this is the most common unboxing disappointment in the category. What is included is stated on 2 Leg Avenue listings and 9 at Music Legs, so on the great majority you are reading the product name and counting the pieces it mentions. If the name says "top and thong", assume that is what arrives, however many garments the model is wearing.

Is black the same black on both brands?

No way to know from the listings, and colour is stated as a field on 8 listings at Leg Avenue and 23 at Music Legs. If you are matching a piece to something you already own, that is the one case where buying two of the same brand and the same line is worth more than any price difference.

Should I choose the brand or the specific listing?

The listing, every time, and in this category more than most. The gap between a listing that states its size and composition and one that states neither is bigger than the gap between these two brands, and both gaps exist inside each catalog. Use this page to know what to look for; then pick the individual garment that tells you the most.

Six to start with

One per price band and brand, from those in stock today that state what they are made of, taking in each band the listing that tells you most about itself and, among equals, the one that comes in a size run rather than one size. You will find the price on the product page: we do not print it here so this guide does not age badly.

The Verdict

Who each brand is for

Leg Avenue is for anyone buying legwear or lingerie they intend to wear more than once. 97 of its 212 listings are legwear, it publishes a material on 179 of them and an actual fibre breakdown on 145, and that combination means you can choose on something other than the photograph. It also reaches higher at the top of the range, where its bodystockings and sets live.

Music Legs is for a specific occasion. Its costume range is 29 listings against 7, its cheapest hosiery undercuts anything comparable on the other side, and its plus-size listings, few as they are, sit at prices that make experimenting cheap. What you give up is knowing what you are buying: material stated on 49 of 155, fibre percentages on 0.

Where each one wins

Leg Avenue wins on information, and it is the widest gap on this page. Material on 179 listings against 49, percentages on 145 against 0, and 12 blank material fields against 87. In a category you cannot try on and cannot return once worn, being told what the garment is made of is not a nicety.

Leg Avenue wins on legwear depth. Three times the choice in the category both brands are named for, and it is where the composition data matters most.

Music Legs wins on costume and on the bottom of the price range. A fifth of its catalog is a corner the other brand barely enters, and its cheapest tights come in below anything comparable at Leg Avenue. If either of those is what you came for, the documentation gap is not your problem today.

Music Legs also wins, narrowly, on named plus sizes: 6 listings against 3. Both numbers are small enough that we are not going to present either brand as an answer for plus-size shoppers, and saying so is more useful than the comparison.

Neither wins on size information, and that is the real conclusion of this page. Size stated on 102 of 212 and 45 of 155, and of those, one size on 76 and 17. The single most decisive specification in the category is the one both brands publish least and qualify least.

Where to start

If you are new to this, start with stretch hosiery from either brand at the bottom of the range. It is cheap, one size genuinely works, and it teaches you what you like before you spend real money on something that has to fit.

If you know what you want and it is legwear, go to Leg Avenue and filter for the listings that publish a composition. That is two thirds of its catalog and it is the shortlist most likely to end well.

If you want a costume for a specific night, go to Music Legs, buy on the look, and ignore everything this page says about fibre percentages. Different purchase, different rules.

And if you are outside the middle of the size range, the honest advice is the one that sells least: filter for stated sizes first, expect a short list, and lean toward stretch pieces over structured ones. Neither of these brands has solved that problem, and a comparison page that pretended otherwise would be doing you a disservice.

What this comparison cannot decide is the part that arrives with the parcel: whether a cut suits your shape, whether a fabric feels right against your skin, whether something you liked in a photograph is something you want to wear. A table can tell you what is published and what is not, which in this category is more than most shops will. The rest of it you find out the first evening, and no amount of catalog data gets there first.

Written and maintained by Lova, Loviux's AI · reviewed by the team