Erin Carpenter is an American model, actress, and dancer who was extremely frustrated when it came to purchasing proper undergarments for her entertainment career. It was especially hard for Carpenter to find hosiery that matched her skin tone. She spent a lot of time and money dying and spray painting tights and shoes for castings and performances because most brands did not produce the right shade of nude to create a great colour match.

Carpenter shared these frustrations with her peers. The lack of nude-for-you undergarment assortments were leaving professional dancers of all races unprepared and uncomfortable to perform. Carpenter fearlessly turned her frustrations into problem-solving solutions by starting a company called Nude Barre, which is the one-stop shop for women of all races to purchase eco-friendly and durable hosiery that matches their skin tone. There are many shades of nude to choose from.

Carpenter says that people assume she made these products only for women of colour. “But some Knicks Dancers were pale and needed lighter colors than the typical ‘suntan.’ They had olive skin, or they were fair with yellow undertones. Those colors didn’t exist”.

Now they do. While most competitors were only offering four to eight shades of nude across a couple of sizes, Nude Barre offers twelve shades and across extended sizes. There are bralettes, fishnet tights, convertible opaque tights, footed opaque tights, and seamless thongs across the shades of nude from an XS to XXL, and there are children’s sizes too. Items like slips, shapewear, girdles and knee-highs are in the pipeline. The items are only available online from the Nude Barre site for now.

There’s a Nudemeter on the site that helps you find the items that best match your skin tone. All you have to do is answer some questions and take a selfie to discover the right nude for you. You can also order swatches if you need to get nude hosiery for large groups of people.

Nude Barre intimates are empowering, as well as practical, durable, affordable, and versatile. You can wear them to dance and perform, or as regular everyday fashion — just like these lovely Nude Barre models above are doing. I don’t wear opaques because I prefer sheer hosiery, but I like to wear dainty fishnets. So I’ll be trying a nude-for-me pair in the Autumn when I need to refresh my hosiery collection.