They were worn by hospital nurses in the 1970s, girls at their first communion, ballet dancers with leotards or fashionable girls in the 1960s combined with skirt dresses, loose shirts and a bob hairstyle with fringes very characteristic White pantyhose are part of an inescapable collective imagination in Spanish society and, despite having banished them for decades, luxury brands are clamoring for their return to the streets.
One of its prescribers was Diana of Wales. Always suitable for every situation, Lady Di was, unwittingly, a great trendsetter. His styles still continue to be analyzed, copied and auctioned at unheard of prices – in December one of his dresses achieved a new world record, since it was auctioned for 1,148,080 dollars. The princess sported them indiscriminately at a polo match in Windsor after the Ascot races or at Epsom racecourse in a moon-print dress by Victor Edelstein. Despite the difficulty of combining them and running the risk of a questionable result, Diana resorted to white panties without risk of error.
More than three decades have passed since then and now some luxury firms have exhibited them again on a catwalk. Chanel’s last haute couture show in Paris was the most famous. Virginie Viard presented its proposal for spring/summer 2024 with an infinite number of options to combine the controversial white pantyhose. One of the favorites of the designer and right hand of the late Karl Lagerfeld was the infallible black and white combination. Giambattista Valli dared with different colored pantyhose for the Fall/Winter 2024 collection. The white tone had a place in three of the shows. Between feathers, blondes and pinks in 3D, Palomo Spain presented in New York some panties in this tone, semi-thick, which hinted at a delicate floral print.
One of the possible reasons for this fortuitous furor for white pantyhose is none other than continuing the fascination with the coquette aesthetic, that is to say, a style focused on the hyperfeminization of fashion. First came square-toed ballet flats, then came jeweled knit jackets and hair bows, and now these pantyhose have become a new extension of this trend.
But beyond what is purely aesthetic, this very controversial piece has a feminist past that answers the name of the first supermodel in history: the British Twiggy. Her name was Lesley Hornby when she was born in 1949 in a suburb of north-west London and her nickname corresponded to the way she was known at home when she was a child: “Twigs”, that is, cousin. At the age of fifteen, he used to move in mod circles and with some of the most peculiar characters of the underground scene at the time. The 1950s had been marked by the post-war period, with austerity and repression as a flag, and it was in the 1960s when characters like Twiggy demanded more freedom and fun with less tight-fitting clothes, which did not mark the shapes, but showed an image childish as a game of seduction. This resulted in the use of very short straight dresses that were combined with these white pantyhose that recalled childhood. An instrument with which a new generation expressed their ideals and rebellion, but also joy, fun and optimism as a leitmotif of existence.
