Leggings should come with guidelines

It seems every year there is a story dedicated to why leggings shouldn’t be worn as pants. While I agree with this sentiment, I can’t help but feel like the other side isn’t represented.

There are reasons why leggings shouldn’t be utilized this way, but could the real culprit be the way people utilize this fashion in general?

After all, the Huffington Post recently ran an article about Pippa Middleton wearing leggings as pants, along with photos as proof. She looked great.

So, what are the faux pas of this fashion statement that just won’t die?

Thickness or non-thickness

Leggings are normally thick enough to not be see-through, but some girls don’t consider this. My piece of advice is to walk outside and check if the sunlight changes the transparency of your leggings. 

This will happen because the leggings might be thin, made of a certain fabric or even woven a certain way. 

Don’t let this happen, ladies. No one wants to see your underwear as they’re walking to class.

Mistaken identity

I saw one young lady walking to class a few weeks ago, and she was definitely 

wearing pantyhose instead of leggings. 

And yes, I do mean pantyhose. Tights are thicker than pantyhose and can be made from nylon, cotton or lycra. The nylon hose are usually very thin, and in this application, it is sheer.

Neither pantyhose nor tights are leggings, and both have a higher chance of becoming transparent in certain lights. 

Lumps and bumps

Leggings don’t hide anything. If you have a voluminous rear end or twig legs, leggings accentuate these parts of your body.

I like to think that my rear is somewhat shapely, and I enhance this characteristic with jeans. But leggings don’t lift and tighten your curves like pants do. 

And leggings can potentially cause the dreaded camel toe, as well.

No one likes that look; if they did, it wouldn’t be associated with the foot of a dirty, smelly, spitting animal. In fact, I can’t even come up with a nice name for a camel toe.

Topping it off

A good reason to wear leggings is if you have a very short dress or a long top. I wore leggings with a long black sweater last week, mostly because I had burned my thigh and couldn’t wear pants at that time. Now I really like the outfit.

If a shirt is long enough, I believe leggings are fine. My rule is the shirt needs to cover the whole butt. That way, if there’s any transparency to the leggings, you still won’t see underwear.

A statistic

If I see someone wearing a North Face coat, leggings and Ugg boots, I almost instantly categorize them as a sorority girl. That’s bad on my part because I know it’s not nice to categorize people like that. 

There’s nothing wrong with sororities. They have some very appealing characteristics, but fashions such as the one described above perpetuate the belief that all sorority girls dress the same.

But really, the look is monotonous in that it doesn’t let you stand out. As a fashion statement, I call leggings a dud.

Wear your leggings all you want. Use them as leggings, pants or for extra warmth this winter. 

Just give a bit of thought to what you’re showing before you leave for class.