I remember when we were in fifth grade and the thing to do was wear you under a denim mini skirt with bedazzled back pockets and slip-on Vans sneakers; those were the days. You were cool and trendy and kind of like pants, kind of not.
In middle school, I don’t remember interacting with you much. I’m pretty sure you went out of style and Bermuda shorts were in. I can’t imagine why, but they were. For the sake of my fashion forwardness, if you can even call Bermuda shorts that, we parted ways for a few years.
High school came around and you made a reappearance in my life. Except this time, it wasn’t my mom dressing me. It was I. And let me just tell you that through all of high school I absolutely hated you because everyone wore you as pants. It didn’t matter if the shirt was long enough or not; you were pants.
I hated you because I thought any girl who wore you in high school was too slovenly to put on a decent pair of jeans. They were even too lazy to put on a dress, which took minimal effort and looked way better than wearing too thin, camel toe exposing leggings as pants. I could see underwear lines; sometimes I could even see actual underwear, through your flimsy, paper-thin material. I thought you were an over- rated, unattractive scapegoat for an actual fashion sense.
I prided myself on doing hair and makeup every day and accessorizing from my eye shadow down to my socks. I would have rather been caught dead than seen with leggings on in public. You were reserved exclusively for dance rehearsals. It was all you were good for, anyway. For all four years of high school, I shamed you and anyone who paid your elastic waistband homage.
Another 4 years later, and I have something different to say to leggings as pants:
From freshman year until now, I have changed so much. So has my view on you. I went from putting together my outfits the night before to sometimes throwing a sweatshirt over the t-shirt and leggings I wore to bed. You read that right, I wear you to bed and I wear you in public. Consecutively. Fashion suicide, I know.
Even so, I realized that sometimes getting more sleep, being comfortable, or being able to fit into your bottoms when you’re too bloated or maybe have gained the Freshman 15 is more important than what you wear to class. After all, we are all here to learn, above all things.
Over the course of stressful all-nighters or weekends of being snowed in, you have been there for me. At sporting events and concerts, you have been my go-to. When I am too cranky to sit on a train in real clothes or even in a dress for a two-hour train ride, you’ve got me covered. When I want to sit cross-legged in class, you make me able to. I can dress you up or down, and I can wear you three days straight if I want to and nobody will ever know.
To all those girls who wore or wear leggings as pants every day, I am so sorry that I judged you so harshly. I honestly did not know what I was missing by casting your fashion ideas aside. I needed some time to grow up and recognize the value of a woman doesn’t lie in whether or not she makes herself up for the day. Some of us always do, some of us choose not to get gussied up, and some of us are like me now where it depends on the day.
It’s all cool to me.
So leggings as pants: thanks for making me comfy cozy and a better person. I love you.
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