With the invention of Nylon in 1935, then that of elastane in 1958, the tight-fitting garment rocked into another dimension, referring people of damsels to their high-shoes and women of the (five) centuries spent in the torment of their corsets. . So decided modernity. The barbaric accessories which, yesterday, reshaped the body by imprisoning it are partly internalized. Slimming diets – the company Weight Watchers was founded in 1963 – and sports practices join tights and girdles, in the making of an otherwise stereotypical female body.
This is how the leggings appear. Pierre Cardin places it in orbit at the end of sixties. He returned in 1978, better received than ever: at the end of a trying year, Olivia Newton-John agrees to disguise herself as a sex bomb for John Travolta’s oily banana, Blondie capsizes the hearts of nightclubbers and Superman reverses the arrow. time for love.
Drawing from the dance wardrobe and modeled on Jane Fonda’s bouncy programs, Véronique and Davina put French women to aerobics. Leotards, tights, warm-up gaiters, sweatbands fill the drawers. Cindy Lauper and Madonna learn the lesson and offer a first synthesis more “fashion” than sporty. Synthesis that will experience a nice comeback in the 2000s in love with the pair of skirt and leggings.
Body worship
Both superstars, captains of industry and referees of elegance, Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian, to name but a few, will in turn redefine the canons of beauty in accordance with a certain lifestyle. Sport is once again becoming a central virtue. Self-entrepreneurship, confidence, balance, youth, spirituality: the body is at the heart of a whole new attention. Sportswear is breaking sales records. Slimming and voluptuousness seem to coexist better than ever. At least on social media.
Then, thanks to the confinements, the sport passes from the room to the living room. 80% female, fitness, yoga and Pilates garner followers. Much less soft than the tracksuit bottom ‘, and as often as possible accompanied by its bra, the “Yoga pant” has become the “all-rounder”. A sort of high-waisted faux twin of leggings, thicker, more opaque, with stitching effects, color flats or esoteric patterns that sometimes reshape the body, it dresses individuals more than ever torn between performance and letting go. -taken.
