Play not the peacock, looking everywhere about you to see if you are well decked, if your shoes fit well, if your stockings sit neatly, and your clothes handsomely. George Washington, Rules of Courtesy and Decency of Behavior
The English Queen of the late 1500’s had been ruling only a few years when she received what was considered an exotic and highly prized gift known as stockings of the knitted silk variety. These stockings also called socks hose and a variety of other names as they are today where mentioned as early as 1300 by the writer Chaucer. To some it may come as a surprise that most leg coverings from this time to the present day were made for and innovated by men.
Leggings of some sort have been found in many burial sites around the globe. Most often these kinds of leggings served as more of a protective covering capacity in any kind of fashionable. Even as far back ancient Egyptians there seems to have been some sense of leg coverings as a fashion element. If you make it to the Louvre in Paris keep an eye out for the display of those Egyptian hose. They may be the best preserved pair from that era. In European society it was the Romans that mention their disgust with the Britons Gauls and Franks as the “trousered barbarians”. The Romans were likely referring to woven materials or animal skin tied with long cords of the same. This practice lasted many centuries and was often called cross-gartering. Around the 1500’s people began to sew and or tie the two separate pieces for each leg together at which point we had the birth of tights.
Silk velvet and colored fabrics of many kinds began to arrive in the leg apparel category. Scant and garish can hardly describe the mens wears of this period. The best description might be that of Circus garb of acrobats. One example at this time was the fad of wearing what looked like two sets of clothing one half on each side. Some types of these leggings took as little as a week to create by hand while others could take as long as half a year. It was toward the end of 1600’s that fashionable woman start to wear these types of leg coverings that had been primarily for men.
According to legend and maybe a little fact a man by the name of William Lee from Nottinghamshire, England watched his wife make a pair of leg coverings. It took her so long and I’m sure interrupted his wives other duties so much so that he decided that a machine should do this sort of business. After making the machine he approached Queen Elizabeth about possibly procuring some help in the manufacturing of these knitting machines. At first she refused mainly on economic grounds that it would put so many knitters out of work. But after some contemplation she decided if it could make silk leggings it might be a worthy investment. When Willy returned with her silk garment she was in a foul disposition and ignored him completely. This one slight may have permanently changed the course of fashion history. William took his invention across the channel to France where Henry IV recognized a good thing and become Mr. Lee’s patron. The hosiery industry was revolutionized and still to this day France is largely regarded as the finest purveyor of undergarments.
Its plain to see, leg coverings in so many forms and names are an ancient item. The adaptations humans have made to this item as we trudge along have had everything from leather hide incarnations to the present day chemically engineered successors. In the future people will still be wearing leggings maybe air conditioned and more protective than todays varieties but still based on the same basic needs. It is nearly impossible to imagine what incarnations maybe next. One thing is for certain if you have legs its usually a good idea to keep them covered.
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