Spring Summer 2023 fashion: the tights + underwear trend

Bottega Veneta introduced it for Spring Summer 2023, Kendall Jenner took it to the streets of Los Angeles and the Miu Miu Fall Winter 2023/2024 fashion show consecrated it on the catwalk: the trend that wants to make people leave the house in tights and underwear, initially viewed with irony and dismissed as yet another fad of fashion, has officially penetrated the wardrobe of the most audacious who have already demonstrated how the new look without trousers and without a skirt can be liberating – the reportages of street style from the latest fashion weeks. Between celebrities, before the photos of Jenner in Bottega Veneta total look went around the world, a few months ago, Bella Hadid had already been paparazzi around New York in white boxers and mini UGGs, then Kylie Jenner showed up at the Spring Summer show 2023 by Loewe in an outfit that included a long coat, thick black stockings and white underpants worn over them as if they were a pair of shorts, even Beyoncé succumbed to the trend, declining it in a super chic key, in a total black outfit with a bodysuit and open blazer a flashy diamond necklace by Tiffany & Co. Needless to say, then, that on social media reinterpretations for the famous everyday life are wasted. The question arises: will we really end up adopting it?

As mentioned, skirts and trousers have been abolished by several brands in the latest Fall Winter 2023/2024 fashion shows, first of all Miu Miu which, to be honest, has mostly proposed an archive reinterpretation – already for Spring Summer 1996 , in fact, Kate Moss paraded for the Prada house brand showing off an underwear in shades of brown under a trench coat, no skirt or pants received.

If, in an intimate collection, aimed at making the banality of everyday life interesting, Miu Miu even shows the shirt or sweater curled up under the elastic band of sheer stockings, Margiela does the same but with fishnet stockings and revisits the look in a punk key. Ferragamo inserts the combination of underwear and socks in elegant looks based on the red-black contrast; Harris Reed at the creative direction of Nina Ricci brings sequined bodysuits on the catwalk worn over transparent second-skin effect jumpsuits studded with sparkling polka dots; stockings are also off Balmain, bodysuits are worn in contrast with bare legs, the silhouette is wrapped up in oversized fur-effect coats with a precious twist; at Dundas, underwear is re-imagined in knitwear, in cutesy suits with coordinated sweaters; from Collina Strada, underwear becomes camouflage and blends into a game of layering with tops and leggings.

Blazer, body and sheer stockings is a combination that recalls Saint Laurent, a Maison that has always placed great emphasis on the legs and reinterpreted the dichotomy between sensuality and power in different keys, capturing the many facets of the female universe. Just think of the latest collections of the maison from Spring Summer 2019, whose campaign shot by Jurgen Teller focused precisely on the combination of black body and sheer stockings. In a certain sense, it is in this context, playing with semantic contrasts, that the Valentino trend for Fall Winter 2023/24 is its own: in a collection that elevates, distorts, emphasizes the formal codes of which the black tie has become as an emblem, what better component than an item of underwear, be it underpants or a bodysuit, to complete a structured look with a maxi blazer, coordinated waistcoat, tie and shirt? A symbol of the feminine that penetrates the male world, in the wardrobe as in the dynamics, in the spaces that have always been the prerogative of this. Valentino gives up on stockings and opts for bare legs, but the concept doesn’t change: can an apparently jaunty and light act become an emblem of freedom and emancipation? Isn’t this, after all, the power of fashion?

While the idea is intriguing, it’s hard to imagine this trend becoming mainstream. More predictable in the everyday environment is instead a return of leggings, among the last to miss out on the revival of the 2000s that is dominating today’s fashion.