History of tights in 5 looks, from the 1950s to today!

Can you think of anything sexier than a pair of stockings, softly caressing a pair of beautiful legs, underlining their beauty with a black line? No, right? And this is why women in the 1940s were obsessed with stockings, to the point that they sometimes drew a black line on the back of their legs, when tight supplies were scarce because of the war. And if tights as we know them were only invented in the 1950s — before then, you had to use the very charming but very uncomfortable combination of stockings and garters — we can’t deny the fact that tights became absolutely essential to any woman’s wardrobe: not just for practical reasons, but really as an actual trend. There was no decade during which tights were not important for women’s looks, and even if they were relatively unimportant on the catwalk lately, they were back with a vengeance in the last two seasons, when they were definitely picked as the super cool item.
Fall Winter 2016-2017 in Milan and Paris were a clear demonstration of this: tights were a key element of all shows, in their every version, ranging from super black to decorated and textured. Chiara is making them a central accessory of her outfits, to define their character. Think of the Calzedonia fishnets that perfectly complemented her fire-engine-red Saint Laurent look, or the polka dots tights — also by Calzedonia — that she wore underneath a maxi sweater by MSGM.

So how did women wear their tights in the past? We tried to write a history of this topic by creating 5 different looks, one per decade. Have a look at the gallery, and let us know what decade is the one that mostly reflects your style!

This is how Chiara wore tights during last fashion month.