l 'll be honest. It has taken me awhile to come around to leggings in their current incarnation in no small part because of the number of walking disasters I see on the street. But I'll concede that there are many reasons to wear leggings. Like the current look they add to the classic proportion of volume on top/skinny on the bottom. Let's add comfort, strategic shaping and seasonless looking knee and vein coverage to the plus column. But while I am loathe to lay down laws, there are rules of engagement for legging wearers of a certain age.
To my eye, leggings look great and ageless (worn by designers Vera Wang and Donna Karan both in their early 60's) as an under layer. Their looks work for two reasons: First, the volume on the top looks sleek, not sloppy. Vera Wang wears a shift dress that skims her body and her leggings meet the top of her sandals for a kind of chic art gallerist look. Donna Karan, the godmother of easy jersey combinations, wears grecian draping to define her curves. Her cropped leggings offer ideal knee-o-flage. And Second, both looks balance black leggings in tonal combinations for an unbroken line from head to toe.
Hem lengths remain annoyingly short and sales people will tell you that leggings are the solution under any too short dress. Wrong. Shift, shirt and tunic dress shapes work. Flouncy anything does not. High contrast combinations will break your body up into blocks of color which is never a sound visual strategy for looking longer, leaner and youthful. Be a leggings purist and wear black only if your goal is sophistication. Wear them with monochromatic top layers or in tonal combinations like Vera and Donna. Prints and patterns should incorporate plenty of black in the design to unify top and bottom.
Leggings worn in lieu of pants set off my mutton alarm. It's crucial to get the combined proportions just right. A bottom clearing jacket like a boyfriend looks right worn over a top of a similar length in jersey or a knit. A layer with shape and drape under your jacket is key to avoid looking blocky.
The tunic (left) above looks sleek and clears (just) anything that needs to be covered. The same line in a mid-thigh to knee length tunic dress is the right idea. The rock chick intimations of the look on the right are for girls in their twenties. It doesn't matter how in shape you are, dressing to look 10 or 20 years younger (especially in leggings) makes you look older, fact.
What about shoes? Ballet flats always work. And flat or chunky wedge heeled sandals provide the right balance for a covered leg in the summer. When the temperatures drop bring on the booties and tall boots. Avoid the I Love the Eighties look of leggings and pumps. The Spanx leggings below are convertible so they can be worn at ankle length or pulled over the top of the foot as a sock compromise.
Simply Vera Vera Wang at Kohl's carries cotton and lycra cropped and full length leggings for $20. Danskin has a range of cropped and ankle length styles in supplex that run from $25.00 to $35.00 and are available in regular and plus sizes. The next price jump is from $65 to $75 for lines like Splendid and James Perse made of a blend of cotton, lycra and modal for softness in regular sizes and Caslon in plus sizes. They are all available online at Nordstrom. Long inseams should try Long Tall Sally for the Alba leggings at $49. Donna Karan Collection leggings are priced at a stratospheric $495 for the kind of luxe lycra jersey used for her ready-to-wear.
Comments
Mac says... Thanks for this post. I've only come around to love leggings in the past few months. With all the super-short dresses that are being sold these days, leggings let me wear the dresses without being indecent. But you're dead-on; only certain dress shapes work with leggings. I hope leggings remain trendy for a while since it seems that, when worn correctly, they can actually look wonderful on a wide variety of body shapes, ages and heights.
Brandie says... I agree. I've just came around to the legging look when I bought a "just-a-little-too-short " tunic dress from Theory. Capri leggings make the dress cuter and more comfortable.
Thanks for the rules.
RobinD says... Great post, and I agree with your assessment. I look to those designers for inspiration. I also fear the mutton alarm!
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