Giles is right - they're a crime against humanity.
Modern leggings made their first appearance in the 1960s. They were trousers similar to capri pants, but tighter. Capri pants were charming – think Audrey Hepburn – and are still charming today. It was when they morphed into leggings in increasingly tight, stretchy, machine-made polyamide fabric that the aesthetic problem began. Leggings disfigure even those with a justifiable reason for wearing them: personal trainers, professional athletes, ballet dancers. Yes, the wearer may have a technically perfect physique, but she wears them at the cost of offering Too Much Information. Leggings were a valuable addition to the human wardrobe in the days when they were largely unseen but served the key function, in the days before central heating, of providing warmth. For medieval men, they took the form of hose – close-fitting, woollen clothing worn on the legs and lower body and suspended from the waist by straps. Crucially they were...
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