We got given an object of clothing to research. Our object was sheer tights. The last two days, myself and 4 other students walked around the lovely and beautiful city of Brighton asking people why they wore our object of clothing and why they were wearing it.

The fair amount of people we asked who wore sheer tights told us they didn’t wear the tights because they were fashionable, its because they are practical for cold weather if they still wanted to wear a skirt. They don’t cost that much so they are easy to replace if the ladder. We asked women in the right hand corner picture why she was wearing tights and her response was “i’m wearing tights because I actually have a job interview”. Tights can be worn for all occasions like a job interview, to a dinner with a special someone but don’t want to show to much flesh or just because you want to. We went into a store on the high street and the variety of colours and patterns yo can now get on tights is unbelievable, they have come so fair since the 1920s when they were just black. People don’t tend to wear the patterned tights though as they are risky fashion.

When I research more into the object I had found out that sheer tights are called “pantyhose” in other countries. It was expected that women would cover their legs in public in the olden days. Even though their dresses or skirts were floor length their ankles still had to be covered. Women who played sports or were in the entertainment industry were allowed not to wear them as they weren’t very function. Around the 1920s the skirts began to rise from the ankles to the knees so tights were must as it was provocative to not wear any. In 1938 DuPont, stocking or tights were made using a sheer material like silk or rayon so you wouldn’t start to sweat as much. Actresses and performers had there stockings sewn into their underwear to make it part of the costume in the 1940s-1950s. In the 1990s sales started to fall because the dress codes in the workplace had been changed, so women liked to wear trousers which stopped women from buying tights and photographers for magazines liked the idea of “bare leg” models. Even though sheer tights weren’t as popular before other styles of tights became more popular like fishnets and patterned cottoned tights.

Tights are optional in nowadays so it isn’t seen as provocative as it did before the 1990s. I personally wouldn’t wear tights because they do tend to ladder and it’s not attractive to the eye when they do and id rather wear a pair of trousers, so I don’t really have a connection with the object itself.