Wet-look leggings, from Sass & Bide's high-end Rats to cheapie knockoffs bought at the mall, are inescapable on young, fashionable girls this autumn. Cover-up and show-off at once, they have rock chic attitude that makes them a staple that doesn't feel like a basic.
One thing they are not, is new. Because fashion-forward girls were rocking much same look at the seaside early in the last century. Granted, their hosiery was of wool rather than a polyamide fibre, but they served much the same purpose of lending a few degrees of modesty while leaving very little to the imagination. The biggest difference? With the old ones, the wet look required getting into the water first.
(photo of Isabeli Fontana above by altamiranyc, at Altamira: Models Off Duty.
1920s bathing suits from Making a Splash: Beach Fashions, 1850-1920, 2008, at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Conn.)
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