Dyears The man who loved women (1977), by François Truffaut, Bertrand (Charles Denner) declares that “Women’s legs are compasses which survey the terrestrial globe in all directions, giving it its balance and harmony”. Showing one’s legs has long been a luxury reserved for men, with these ladies forbidden to show even a piece of the ankle. The evolution of fashions and the shortening of hemlines over the decades will eventually lift the veil on this part of the female anatomy.
To avoid remaining bare, the legs will then be dressed in silk, rayon then nylon. And indulge in all fantasies. When Anne Bancroft, the Mrs. Robinson of Winner (1968), slides a pair of black stockings down his legs, Dustin Hoffman, and quite a few people with him, loses his mind.
Knee-highs don’t necessarily have this crazy sex appeal. They rather evoke the world of schoolgirls or teenagers in uniform. When they don’t transcend the question of gender to also settle into the men’s wardrobe. Returning from a martial dimension.
The prerogative of the elegant
During the two world wars, they protected the feet and calves of soldiers of the British Empire – the high-ranking officers wore a finely knitted version, while the men of the lower ranks made do with a coarser material. Apart from conflicts, knee-highs are the prerogative of the elegant and powerful of this world, who slip them under their suit pants to avoid revealing the slightest centimeter of skin once seated.
The quality, the fit and the color say a lot about the character of the person who wears them, their personality, their origins. “A man who wears socks like that (corkscrews and extended) cannot be dishonest, Pierre Joxe, then first president of the Court of Auditors, declared in 1993 to defend Prime Minister Pierre Bérégovoy, suspected of personal enrichment.
If it has long been in good taste to hide the top of one’s knee-highs, which sometimes sausages the calf, fashion has taken pleasure in revealing what should have remained hidden. On the catwalks, the Italian Miuccia Prada regularly uses it to make her suits more subversive, while Maria Grazia Chiuri, a fan of transparency games, surfs on the codes of visible lingerie for Dior.
Carbon, pastel or flesh, dotted with plumetis, knitted or in a fishnet version, adopted both by the big names in luxury and by fashion brands… Here, in any case, are the knee-highs that have become the key accessory of the season.
