I don’t mean the leather leggings worn by old-time American Indians and the pioneers who hung out with them. I’m thinking of the modern leggings worn by women (and increasingly be men also these days). Skintight garments made of a fabric thinner than trousers but thicker than pantyhose.
They display in exquisite detail every bit of one’s physique, including buttocks and crotch, leaving very little to the imagination. Yet ladies everywhere do not feel embarrassed to wear them in public. I knew leggings had achieved a definite level of respectability when the network news showed Tipper Gore and her daughter Karenna wearing leggings, out jogging with Al.
What is notable is how quickly leggings achieved respectability. It was only about 10 or 11 years ago, the “Cathy” comic strip showed Cathy fretting about wearing “stirrup pants” in public, because they fit her physique so snugly. (Stirrup pants were a brief fashion fad in the late 1980s.) And yet leggings, which are much more skintight and revealing than stirrup pants, very quickly became acceptable everywhere and today are still popular. And nobody feels shy to be seen like that? The public mores shifted very rapidly, all of a sudden.
Speaking only for myself, they’re very comfortable, but they are revealing. I do wear the denim type–not so tight and revealing–but mostly with tunic style blouses. I only wear the spandex type if I’m doing exercise, and then I wear a very
long t-shirt. I’m not svelte, and I hate to look sloppy, so I’m pretty amazed that women bigger than me–or even smaller than me truth be told–go out in public in the skintight kind. Of course, I don’t understand wearing throng underwear, either. Maybe I’m just a fashion drop-out.
If ONLY stirrup pants were a brief fashion fad. They live on, like a cancer that has metastasized throughout the body of fashion. Yuck, yuck, yuck. I hate stirrup pants … and “Cathy,” for that matter.
I’m a member of the leggings-with-big-tops crowd, too.
I got hooked on them during my last two pregnancies. They’re comfy, stretchy, and look a little hipper than the tent-with-a-bow-on-top maternity dresses. Worn with a nice maternity top and a nice pair of shoes, they can look downright dressy.
I’ve always been partial to oversize tops, because they cover my oversized butt. But sometimes in summer, even the jeans that I normally live in can get too hot. Leggings are a bit more comfortable.
I can definitely understand how comfy they are. That in itself is enough incentive to make them widely popular. They are suitable in all weather, summer and winter, year round.
But I see from you ladies here that bashfulness is not yet extinct! And yet that doesn’t inhibit millions of other women from giving their all, as it were.
The latest news on the leggings front is that men are overcoming their shyness about wearing leggings – but only as long as they are running or cycling. They haven’t gotten to the point of just walking around in them as women do. Another difference: Men’s leggings always have some company logo or design and are made of some heavier kind of fabric. Women’s leggings usually are plain unandorned cotton-lycra (which looks more comfortable and less high-tech; that looks more like clothing and less like athletic technology). So what was once thought of as women’s wear has now become unisex.
As for hiding one’s butt in leggings – it seems as though a lot of women have now decided, “Who cares anyway?” Let it all hang out. A more positive self-image?
I have a little girl who insisted on wearing dresses for the past three years, and I bought her leggings to wear underneath so that she wouldn’t freeze in the winter. My problem is that she’s given up on the dresses now, but still insists on wearing the leggings with sweatshirts, sweaters and t-shirts. She’s not quite 8 years old and is a perfectly healthy, fit child, but the leggings make even HER butt look awful (especially since she’s beginning to outgrow them). I’ve been surreptitiously buying thicker and thicker leggings and I’m hoping to have her switched over to actual pants soon.
InternetLegend, I wouldn’t worry about my daughter wearing leggings if I were you. Since she is at an age where she isn’t trying to show off her body to impress anyone, I don’t see why it matters. shrugs
Me, I wore leggings during my elementary school years. They were all I wore. I don’t think I owned a pair of jeans until I was in 5th-6th grade. Since it was a time when wearing humungous t-shirts/sweatshirts over leggings was considered cool, I had no shame since the shirt would usually cover my (practically nonexistant) butt. Yes, they’re very comfortable, and that’s why I’m guessing women like them (also by reading other posts).
For some time there (7-10th grade or so) I became phobic of leggings and stirrup pants (also a major clothes staple in my wardrobe), and I exclusively wore baggy jeans. It was probably due to a poor body image. Then one day I woke up and decided, “Hey! I’m very skinney and I probably won’t stay this way very long!” so now I wear a healthy mix of bootlegs, flares, and yes, even stretch pants, but in colors like black and denim. I could never understand a woman wearing white leggings unless she wore a long tunic top. Otherwise–yuck! And that goes for anyone, whether she’s small or large!
If I lived in a cold place, I’d probably wear leggings as part of a running activity. I wear spandex shorts for running and volleyball because they’re more comfortable. I used to wear big shirts over them, but I’ve kind of switched to something that stops about mid-butt level becaseu it’s a pain in the ass to play in a huge top. I have an ok looking ass, although I kind of would like it to be a bit bigger [I know, this is the converse of most people, but who said I had to be normal] to make a nicer round curve. I don’t really see the point of wearing leggings for reasons other than exercise, but I wear tight jeans regularly, which has a similar effect as leggings. Also, I wear thongs all the time with the spandex shorts, and I’ve never once had camel toes, even in the most painted on shorts I own. I don’t get it, how do people manage that?
I used to wear spandex shorts/leggings under dresses and baggy shirts when I was younger, but I kind of stopped doing that in favor of wearing corduroys when I was in 6th grade. I moved from corduroys to jeans and regular pants when I was in 8th grade. It seems to be a phase many girls went through that had older siblings growing up in the 80s/early 90s.
Camel toes are a result of tight pants revealing the “terrain” of your vaginal lips. It kind of looks like a camel’s toes. Britney Spears is notorious for this problem.
When you said leggings, I thought you meant those knit “footless socks” about 3 feet long that were big in the early 80’s. Those wierd things you wore on your lower legs over your spandex when you worked out or wanted to look like you did.
We have these “long” socks for the Spritle-let. The other day I put them on him and didn’t fold them down. They went up to his upper thighs. Instantly I started singing “What a feeling…” from Flashdance. God the 80’s were wierd!
I wear leggings about as often as I wear jeans, but, like Kalessa, I prefer denim and heavier fabrics to the old doubleknit kind everyone was wearing a few years back. (The heavier ones don’t ride up, for one thing.)
I usually wear a longer top with them just because it looks neater, but I don’t worry if I’m hanging out a bit. I’m not going to look any smaller anyway, so I might as well be comfy. I’ve never believed that baggy people (like my size 16 self) look better in baggy clothes.
