Before this year, my relationship with tights was limited to my appreciation for my mom’s work looks in the early aughts: monochrome skirt suits, nude pantyhose, pointy heels, and a perfect blowout. I remember how she carefully scrunched each side of material before sliding her legs in, and how frustrated she got when, inevitably, each pair ripped. Watching her, I never got the sense that tights were practical or comfortable, but rather staples of an elegant working woman’s wardrobe. They felt more like an obligation than a choice—something women had to wear instead of something women really wanted to wear.
Times have changed since then. Tights aren’t just popular in 2023, they’re actually starting to replace pants entirely. And I am finally starting to understand why.
The first urge to pull on a pair of tights (and little else) really came to me last winter, when supermodel Kendall Jenner stepped out in Los Angeles wearing nothing but a black sweater, sheer black tights, matching pumps, and no pants. Hard to compete with that, and I won’t be showing up pant-less to the office, I thought. But I stored the outfit in the saved folder in my brain for later use, just in case.
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Then, it seemed as if every celebrity I idolized got in on the trend—incorporating tights into their looks not as an afterthought or a boring necessity, but to elevate them in a more interesting way. Hailey Bieber was photographed in an array of minidresses, micro skirts, and tiny shorts paired with tights. Dua Lipa partied in Ibiza in bright red plaid tights and no pants. Selena Gomez tried on a pair. Suki Waterhouse styled them with denim shorts (and even embraced the rips).
One day, the Instagram algorithm got the message and old photos of Kaia Gerber wearing her stockings with sneakers began popping up on my feed. Soon enough, I was scrolling through Calzedonia’s site like I couldn’t go another day without slipping…
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