No wardrobe is full with out a pair of the perfect black leggings. Smooth, stretchy tights have develop into as important as blue denims and white T-shirts—put on ’em on cozy nights in, put on ’em whereas exercising, throw on an outsized blazer or sweater and put on ’em to the workplace (in case your costume code permits…use your judgement, we’re not your boss).
However in terms of choices for black leggings, the restrict doesn’t exist. So the SELF staff started working testing tights from fan-favorite manufacturers like Athleta, Lululemon, Outdated Navy, and extra. Store our favorites for operating laps, operating errands, namaste-ing, and staying in beneath.
Our prime picks
- Finest General: Lululemon Wunder Practice Excessive-Rise Tight, $98
- Finest Opaque: Aritzia PowerSculpt New Cheeky Hello-Rise Legging,
$78$47 - Finest for Excessive-Affect Exercises: Alo 7/8 Excessive-Waist Airlift Legging, $128
- Finest Compressive: Spanx Form Booty Enhance 7/8 Leggings, $98
- Finest with Pockets: Athleta Salutation Stash Excessive-Rise Legging, $109
- Finest Price range Decide: Outdated Navy Excessive-Waisted PowerSoft Leggings,
$40$28 - Finest for On a regular basis Put on: Vuori AllTheFeels Legging, $98
- Finest for Lifting: Beneath Armour Meridian Leggings, $80
- Finest for Yoga: Adidas Girls’s All Me 7/8 Leggings,
$60$36 - Finest Maternity Leggings: Hole Maternity On a regular basis Full Panel Leggings,
$60$29
On this article
Store the perfect black leggings
In a sea of seemingly related pairs, these are prime catches.
Finest General: Lululemon Wunder Practice Excessive-Rise Tight
Lululemon’s Wunder Practice Tight is designed for the health club or health studio (however nonetheless appears to be like sharp out to brunch or bopping round city). They’re created from the model’s Everlux material, a mix of sweat-wicking nylon and Lycra that has four-way stretch—so that they’re simply as versatile as you might be. Additionally they have medium compression, making them extra supportive than the model’s fashionable Align and Wunder Beneath types, however simply as smooth to the contact.
Accessible in sizes from 0 by 20 and 4 inseam lengths, discovering your good match is easy; then, cinch the waistband’s inside drawstring to maintain them up all day lengthy. SELF’s former commerce director, Abbey Stone, actually put her pair by its paces (learn: a number of sweaty Peloton biking lessons and energy coaching classes) and beloved how light-weight they felt. Should you like a mild maintain, she recommends going in your common measurement. It’s also possible to measurement up in case you choose much less compression or down for a tighter match.
Sizes: 0 to twenty | Lengths: 15, 23, 25, 28, or 31 inches | Supplies: Nylon, Lycra elastane
Affiliate social media supervisor Katie Gunderman testing the Lululemon Wunder Practice Excessive-Rise Tight:
Finest Opaque: Aritzia PowerSculpt Cheeky Hello-Rise Legging
Don’t sleep on Aritzia’s activewear. The Cheeky Hello-Rise Leggings within the model’s PowerSculpt material are easy, glossy, and keep put by each squat, lunge, and ahead fold. They’re additionally (and most significantly!) extremely opaque—whether or not you wish to put on underwear while you work out or not.
“Truthfully, the Aritzia leggings are the one ones I attain for now,” says purchasing editor Angela Trakoshis. “They’re buttery smooth, tremendous flattering, and in some way nonetheless maintain the whole lot in with out feeling tight. Whether or not I am operating errands or simply lounging, they really feel like a second pores and skin.”
Love this pair’s booty-lifting look, however choose a much less compressive match? The identical design is obtainable in 5 totally different materials that, in line with Aritzia, are higher for lower- and medium-impact actions.
Sizes: 00 to 12 | Lengths: Ankle-length; inseam varies by measurement, measurement 4 is 26 inches | Supplies: Nylon, elastane
Purchasing market editor Angela Trakoshis testing the Aritzia PowerSculpt Cheeky Hello-Rise Legging:
Finest for Excessive-Affect Exercises: Alo 7/8 Excessive-Waist Airlift Legging
Constructed from compressive material with a slight sheen, Alo’s Airlift Leggings are good for powerful, super-sweaty exercises. “I really like them for energy coaching and operating,” says SELF’s affiliate social media supervisor, Katie Gunderman.
And so they do not simply look nice on—she provides that the design holds her in in all the best methods too. “The excessive waist and compression make me really feel so safe whereas doing high-impact actions, which I really like,” she says. “The graceful Airlift efficiency material makes them simple to run in and absorbs sweat.” (P.S: Should you’re ever trying to department out from black, she says in addition they are available in a number of cute colours.)
Sizes: 00 to 18 | Lengths: 24.25 or 24.75 inches | Supplies: Polyester, elastane
SELF senior commerce editor Sarah Felbin testing the Alo 7/8 Excessive-Waist Airlift Legging:
Finest Compressive: SPANXshape Booty Enhance 7/8 Leggings
In case your prime precedence with leggings is trying snatched, we’ve discovered your match. Shapewear model Spanx is doing what it does greatest with the Booty Enhance Leggings: The glossy, slippery material affords a lot assist, I really feel like a Bond woman (or a seal…however, like, in a great way?) after I put on them.
This type has additionally taken house a number of SELF Activewear Awards, proving it might maintain as much as hard-core CrossFit circuits and dance cardio lessons. “These are perfection,” mentioned one tester, who wears a measurement 2X. “They didn’t transfer. The leggings are high-waisted and canopy my complete tummy as a plus-size lady. The place have these leggings been all my life?”
Sizes: XS to 3X | Lengths: 25 inches | Supplies: Nylon, elastane
Purchasing market editor Angela Trakoshis testing the SPANXshape Booty Enhance 7/8 Leggings:
Finest with Pockets: Athleta Salutation Stash Excessive-Rise Legging
Athleta
Salutation Stash Excessive Rise Legging
There’s a very good cause why Athleta’s Salutation Stash leggings took prime honors in our 2024 Activewear Awards: They’re smooth, supple, and final endlessly. “These are my the whole lot leggings! I’ve been shopping for the Stash from Athleta for years, and so they maintain up,” one tester mentioned. “I educate barre, raise weights, hike trails, and browse the aisles of Dealer Joe’s in them always.”
I really like how the waistband helps my core with out rearranging my organs, and the material mix (which incorporates moisture-wicking nylon, Lycra, and polyester) can stand as much as sweaty exercise classes—consider me, I sweat a ton.
Sizes: XXS to 3X | Lengths: Petite (25 inches), common (27 inches), and tall (30 inches) | Supplies: Nylon, Lycra, recycled polyester, elastane, polyester (relying on the colour)
Finest Price range Decide: Outdated Navy Excessive-Waisted PowerSoft Leggings
Outdated Navy
Excessive-Waisted PowerSoft Full-Size Pocket Leggings
Professional tip: You don’t must spend a ton to get a high-quality pair of black leggings. Outdated Navy’s Excessive-Waisted PowerSoft Leggings had been the number-one decide by SELF readers in our 2024 Activewear Awards, and so they’ll solely run you round $40 (even much less once they’re on sale, which is usually).
“They’re snug AF, slimming, and so they truly keep up throughout runs! I actually have 25 pairs, and so they’re the one bottoms I’ll do races in,” one tester mentioned. “The aspect pockets are so nice, I don’t even must put on operating belts throughout my coaching runs to maintain my telephone, gum, and keys useful.”
Sizes: XS to 4X | Lengths: Petite (26 inches), common (28 inches), and tall (32 inches) | Supplies: Polyester, spandex
Finest for On a regular basis Put on: Vuori AllTheFeels Legging
“After years of carrying and writing about leggings, I lastly know what manufacturers are speaking about once they say their tights have a ‘second pores and skin’ really feel, thanks to those leggings,” SELF’s senior commerce author, Sara Coughlin, says. “They’re lighter than air, endlessly stretchy, and actually a pleasure to put on.” Coughlin wore the Vuori leggings for a complete day: She lounged on the sofa, went for a stroll, performed with the canine, “and I by no means as soon as felt distracted by my leggings,” she says.
Nevertheless, she doesn’t advocate this pair for exercises as a result of their thicker, knit materials traps warmth and moisture. “The leggings felt nice whereas I used to be stretching, however began to really feel a bit heat after I began lifting weights and shifting round,” she says. “I’m nonetheless glad to have them in my closet—they are surely uniquely and blissfully snug—however now I do know they’re strictly lounging leggings.”
Sizes: XXS to XXL | Lengths: Quick (22 inches), common (24 inches), lengthy (27 inches) | Supplies: Recycled polyamide, elastane
Finest for Weightlifting: Beneath Armour UA Meridian Leggings
Beneath Armour
Girls’s UA Meridian Leggings
SELF’s director of health and meals, Christa Sgobba, is a leggings professional: She’s worn dozens of various types through the years for enterprise and pleasure—as a result of, hey, while you’re a health editor, figuring out is each of these issues. Her prime tights for energy coaching are the Beneath Armour Meridian Leggings.
“The fabric is so easy and lightweight—it doesn’t really feel constricting,” she says. That being mentioned, “These are completely squat-proof,” she guarantees (a should while you’re lifting). Bonus: UA reviewers say these make their butts look nice.
Sizes: XS to XXL | Lengths: Quick (27 inches), common (29 inches), tall (31 inches) | Supplies: Polyester, Lycra elastane
Finest for Yoga: Adidas All Me 7/8 Leggings
Adidas
Girls’s All Me 7/8 Leggings
Once you’re flowing by chaturanga, you need to have the ability to deal with holding your elbows tucked in and your core robust—not on whether or not your leggings are going to roll down. In accordance with SELF senior well being author Erica Sloan, that’s precisely what you get with this pair: “These actually are a second-skin kind of legging, so you possibly can virtually overlook you’re carrying them,” she says. “And for all their softness and stretchiness, I used to be nonetheless impressed by the truth that they stayed in place all through a Pilates reformer class and a number of walks round my neighborhood—no want to drag up the waistband.”
Whereas Adidas recommends the All Me leggings for low-impact actions, they do have the model’s “Aeroready” sweat-wicking expertise, which Sloan can vouch for. “I sweat a ton in Pilates, and these didn’t present the moisture a lot or keep moist for lengthy after,” she says.
Sizes: 2XS to 2XL | Lengths: 7/8 size (30.5, 31, 31.5, or 32 inches) | Supplies: Polyester (recycled), elastane
Finest Maternity Leggings: Hole Maternity On a regular basis Full Panel Leggings
Hole
Maternity On a regular basis Full Panel Leggings
SELF’s particular tasks director, Hannah Pasternak, says these maternity leggings from Hole are “simply sooooo smooth”—that’s 5 Os, associates. Made from 90% cotton, they’re a bit thicker and have much less give than your typical exercise leggings. However Pasternak and reviewers agree that the fabric feels high-quality, particularly for the $60 price ticket.
Pasternak’s remaining phrase? “Wanting on the mannequin in these leggings is sort of sufficient to persuade me to get pregnant once more,” she says.
Sizes: XXS to XXL | Lengths: 31.5 inches | Supplies: Cotton, spandex
What to search for when selecting black leggings
Listed here are some standards to bear in mind as you weigh your choices.
All leggings should be tight and stretchy (in the event that they’re not this stuff, they’re not leggings), which suggests they’ll embrace materials like spandex, Lycra, or elastane. For train leggings, you’ll additionally need to search for sweat-wicking supplies like polyester or nylon, Alysha Flynn, founding father of the feminine operating group What Runs You, beforehand informed SELF. Lounging leggings, in the meantime, might embrace cotton or wool blends.
In accordance with Lauren Leavell, licensed private coach and barre teacher, ensure your leggings can help you transfer with out feeling restricted. Whereas all leggings are supposed to match near the physique, totally different pairs have totally different ranges of stretch and compression.
“In athletics, the thought behind compression put on is to enhance blood movement or oxygen supply to muscle groups,” James Borchers, MD, director of the division of sports activities medication at Ohio State College Wexner Medical Heart, beforehand informed SELF. Nevertheless, there aren’t many research to again these claims, so there isn’t a lot a “greatest” stage of compression as one which’s “greatest for you”—a.ok.a. no matter feels cozy.
Do you want a pocket to maintain your telephone bodily hooked up to your physique always? A drawstring to maintain your leggings’ waistband tight? Or will you be operating exterior and want a pair with a zippered compartment in your keys and ID? Options aren’t at all times simply added bells and whistles—they will make the distinction between a legging that will get the job performed and one which makes you carry out even higher.
How we picked the leggings on this record
SELF editors sifted by on-line evaluations to seek out beloved leggings throughout the web, then put among the prime picks by their paces. Testers wore their leggings for a number of actions—together with operating, yoga, biking, and faculty pickup—over the course of the testing interval (testing time various by individual, but it surely was at the least one month lengthy) and washed them in line with the care directions. We additionally thought-about previous winners from SELF’s Activewear Awards.
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