Leggings

[Dept of PMM Artists & things]

Leggings

Lisa Cant wearing leggings on the catwalk

Leggings are a type of fitted clothing covering the legs, which can be worn by both men and women.

Originally leggings were two separate garments, one for each leg.

Modern leggings are typically made from a blend of lycra, Spandex, nylon, cotton, or polyester blend, but they can also be made from wool, silk and other materials. Leggings are available in a multitude of colours and decorative designs.

Leggings are sometimes worn fully exposed, and are more traditionally worn partially covered by a garment such as a skirt, a large t-shirt or shorts, or fully covered by an outer garment, such as a full length skirt. Leggings are typically ankle-length, and some are stirrupped or encase the feet. Some are shorter. Leggings are worn to keep a person's legs warm, as protection from chafing during an activity such as exercise or as a decorative or fashion garment. Leggings are worn by both men and women in an exercise situation, but predominantly by women outside such situations.

In contemporary usage, leggings refers to tight, form-fitting trousers that extend from the waist to the ankles. In the United States, they are sometimes referred to as tights. However, the two words are not synonymous as the word tights refers to opaque pantyhose.

History

Leggings of the Native Americans
Karl May Museum Radebeul

Leggings in various forms and under various names have been worn for warmth and protection by both men and women throughout the centuries. The separate hose worn by men in Europe from the 14th to 16th centuries (the Renaissance period) were a form of leggings, as are the trews of the Scottish Highlands. Separate leggings of buckskin leather were worn by some Native Americans. These were adopted by some Long Hunters, French fur trappers, and later by mountain men. They are the leatherstockings of James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales. The Buckskins, were mostly a dull grey brain-tan, not the bright, glossy vegetable tanned leather commonly used today.

Cowboys wore leggings of buckskin to protect from chapping caused by riding, wear and tear to their pants, and bites from animals, such as snakes or insects in the scruff, such as ticks.

In many places, especially in colder countries such as: Russia or Korea men and women continued to wear wool leggings into modern times, often as an additional outer layer for warmth.

The linen pantalettes worn by girls and women under crinolines in the mid-19th century were also a form of leggings, and were originally two separate garments. Leggings became a part of fashion in the 1960s, as trousers similar to the capris pants but much tighter. Fashion designer, Patricia Field, claimed, while advertising on the Home Shopping Network, that she invented the modern leggings for women in the late 1970s.

It was not until the fitness and aerobics craze in the very early 1980s that leggings became fashionable as gym-styled street wear for women. Leggings were worn in the 1980s through the mid-1990s with skirts, and short dresses like babydoll dresses, oversized shirts, sweaters, etc., and with slouch socks and Keds.