Fashion was one of her compass on that journey. As if stripping away her past, Sedgwick shed her Diors and Balenciagas wardrobe and adopted a bold and youthful signature style, wearing briefs over opaque leggings or fishnet and a T-shirt (often paired with off-the-shoulder earrings ), which is from a dance studio she is very familiar with. The authors of a Life magazine feature titled “The Girl in Black Leggings” described Sedgwick’s unique aesthetic as “mentally eccentric”. This quality also comes into play in the designs of Mary Quant, who also found fashion through dance studios.
There are two no-pants genres at , bare legs and stocking legs. Edie falls into the latter category. The advent of seamless stockings (made using circular knitting machines) revolutionized sixties fashion. “Women Rebel in Pantyhose,” the headline of a 2023 Boston Globe story explains the eradication of tights eliminates the need for belts and stockings, and enables “the fashion possibilities of miniskirts and hot pants—neither of which can go without anything unless there’s a smooth line of stockings at the waist.” Taller Hemlines are meant to place more emphasis on the legs, traditionally a symbol of female mobility and advancement.
Sedgwick told The Times that her “uniform” was designed “‘not to be smart, but because it’s simple .’” A similar intuition may have inspired Miuccia Prada’s fall Miu Miu collection, where elegance and “real life” collide, with imperfect results. If the stocking-free look on her runway was provocative, it was also streamlined and comfortable.
The no-stocking look may have been waist-enlarging Zoom culture and ballet, but Alexandre Samson, curator of the Fashion Museum at Palazzo Galliera, has a broader perspective, Relate it to the creations of Vanessa Beecroft, Skims, and Balenciaga boots. The Boston Globe 2023 article cites hosiery surveys done at the time in which some women equated pantyhose with For liberty, others and protection. The latest update to the pantless look shows that these qualities don’t have to be mutually exclusive, a visible sign that women have lots of legs to stand on, thank you very much.
