Evelinda: The Starbucks I frequent is loaded with business people, making it a great place to check out trends in professional wear.

It has become apparent to me that there is a generational tussle over whether to wear pantyhose. I spotted two women in their 50s who were perfectly attired in suits and hose.

Nearby were several business-casual working girls in their 20s in wrap dresses and skirts - totally hoseless.

Judie: What Starbucks do you frequent? You don't like coffee. You were in their for the lemon cake, weren't you?

Evelinda: Can we stay on my point, please? When Style Matters presents business seminars, we suggest that women consider wearing hosiery in the workplace. By the frowns from the younger staff and the knowing smiles from the older women, we know we have hit a sore spot.

Younger working women have grown up in business-casual environments and don't understand the importance of looking professional. Though not just younger women: Michelle Obama, in her mid 40s, confessed on The View that she does not wear hose.

Judie: It's pretty simple: All the research states that about 30 seconds is all that's needed for sizing up someone.

Some studies say it takes as little as 10 seconds to make an accurate appraisal. If you want to be treated like boardroom material, you have to look like you belong in the boardroom.

Evelinda: Younger women tell us that hosiery is uncomfortable and hot (as hot as a latte on a 100-degree day?). It seems to us that stockings are no more uncomfortable than the tights and leggings we see in the office.

Judie: We decided to get an opinion from Molly Broeren, owner of Molly's of Denver (1660 Stout St.), a boutique known for dressing Colorado female power brokers.

"If you are going to be trendy and fashionable, go bare-legged, but if you want to be a professional, wear hose. If you hate hose, wear pants. Periodically you can get away without hose, but it will depend on your meetings for the day," Broeren says.

Here are Style Matters' general guidelines:

* Know and follow your corporate dress code. If your supervisor wears hose, consider doing the same.

* With hose, wear closed-toe shoes or peep-toe shoes with small "peeps."

* Watch out for closed-toe shoes that display toe cleavage. Cleavage is cleavage and doesn't belong in the office place.

* If you're skipping the pantyhose, make sure your legs are shaved and slightly tanned, with no obvious cuts and bruises. In other words, legs should look like they are covered with stockings.

* Special dispensation is given to dressy office party attire, which sometimes requires strappy sandals with no stockings.

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