We’ve heard RLEG’s feelings about leggings—twice—now, it’s time for a Collegiette™ to take a stand on the
issue.
I feel the need to make a public announcement about the much-disputed tights-are-not-pants debacle that is plaguing college campuses everywhere. I have compiled some notes in order to clearly compare a few points absolutely essential to understanding this debate.
Things that are true:
Tights are not pants.
- Tights go over your feet.
- You wear them under dresses and skirts.
- They are supposed to keep you warm.
- They are almost always sheer (with a few exceptions i.e. sweater tights etc.)
- It is never, and will never be acceptable to wear tights with just a shirt. Everyone will see your money-maker, and you will not make money.
- Sheer pants showing your underwear is not the same thing as a sheer shirt showing a bandeau. I don’t actually think there is much confusion about this. The number of girls really wearing tights as pants is very small, and these girls obviously have some other major thought process or self-image issues that are beyond fashion confusion.
Leggings are not tights.
THIS IS WHERE THINGS GET IMPORTANT. This is an incredibly essential distinction that is almost always overlooked. I guess I can understand boys’ confusion about this. It may be hard to keep up with the latest female fashion vocab. But leggings and tights are obviously here to stay, so it is time this is cleared up. While
leggings serve many of the same purposes as tights, a good pair of leggings offers much more coverage and therefore may indeed substitute for pants (in certain appropriate situations, as I will explain later).
- Leggings do not go over your feet (they can vary greatly in length but that is not relevant to this debate).
- Leggings also can go under skirts and dresses.
- Leggings are also meant to keep you warm.
- Leggings are much thicker than tights and are generally not sheer.
- It should be noted that some leggings are sheer and this is where the main problems arise. If you put on a pair of leggings with the intention of wearing them as pants, and you bend your knee and see your skin through the fabric, they will not suffice as pants and you should take them off immediately. This should not be a complicated process. If your leggings are see-through, they are not pants. Also as a general rule, no matter how opaque your leggings, it is always better to wear a longer shirt.
Now that we’ve cleared all of that up, we must move on to a more complicated side of this debate: If leggings can sometimes be pants, when is it acceptable to make this substitution?
This really is not complicated either. If you would like to be taken seriously, particularly by an adult or any type of authority figure, do not wear leggings as pants. For example, don’t wear leggings as pants to an interview. Don’t wear leggings as pants to a formal dinner. Don’t wear leggings as pants to work. You get the idea.
The most appropriate substitution leggings can make is for sweat pants. A boy once asked me (last week), “How
much longer does it really take to put on real pants?” Males take note: we don’t choose leggings over pants to save time. We wear leggings because they are at least 500 times more comfortable than our skinny jeans and they match almost anything. Leggings as pants (that provide full coverage of course) are the perfect choice for a long day of studying at the library, or your 8:30 Friday morning class. But to be fair, it is not that much harder to put on some real pants.
My final note: leggings, like almost any other item of clothing, can often be hard to pull off. So know your own body. Everyone can wear leggings, but probably not everyone should. Just like anyone can wear crop tops, but almost nobody actually should. That however, is a debate for another time. So Collegiettes™, if you’re getting ready for an endless day at the library, or you woke up six minutes before class, or you can’t find anything else to match your denim button-up, by all means wear your leggings with pride. But for the love of anything flattering, use some discretion.