Leggings and Tights Are Not Pants

For a while now, people have been confusing leggings¹ and/or tights² with pants. It’s slowly becoming a fashion epidemic, and a horrible one at that. I see people that substitute pants with leggings and/or tights everywhere from my local shopping mall, on the subway, or even as I make my way from class to class. These people look perfectly normal, and often appear to be more well put together in terms of fashion except for one thing – they’re not wearing pants.

I don’t care how “in” the current look of using leggings or tights as pants is or how comfortable that look may be, they still aren’t pants. Leggings and tights are meant to be used for layering, such as with short skirts or light summer dresses. They were not designed with the intent of being paired with only an oversized hoodie and a pair of Ugg boots. When worn as pants, leggings make you look like your wardrobe is lacking an important element for any clothing ensemble: the bottom half of your outfit.

It’s not an attractive look, nor is it flattering, and the people that are able to pull off the leggings look are few and far between. If you can’t pull off a particular look for whatever reason, then even the most fashionable of fashion trends make a person look ridiculous instead of sophisticated. Being able for others to see your underwear lines displayed by your leggings-covered butt is not my idea of looking stylish, and frankly, I know very little people that have the right body shape to rock the leggings look without needing to feel self-conscious (leggings aren’t flattering, they hide nothing) and are able to pull it off without looking frumpy or clueless about fashion.

Leggings are only acceptable as pants if you’re off to a fitness class such as yoga or aerobics. Otherwise, they are not pants, and should only be used to layer an outfit, and never as actual pants.

ETA: While Googling about this subject, I found a very good resource. ;D

1. Exhibit number one, number two [↩]
2. Exhibit number three [↩]

Cross-posted from breakthesky.net. Please leave any comments there.