The Ever Adaptable Leotard

By Author: Cedric Grosjean
Total Articles: 60
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Way back in 1880s, the first utterance of the name leotard was heard in regards to clothing. This was many years after its inventor Léotard's passing. Now, Léotard himself had named the garment a maillot, which is actually a word in the French language which roughly translates to mean a tight fitting shirt or shorts used in sporting activities, a pretty good name, given that it is hard to define the garment. In the early 20th century, these one piece garments were mainly confined to circus and acrobatic shows, worn by the specialists who performed these acts.

In the 1920s and 1930s, bathing had become really popular, and I'm not talking about taking a bath, hundreds of people now enjoyed frequent trips to the seaside to have a swim in the sea. During this period leotards became the main influence on the style of bathing suits worn. Even now you can see the similarity been between the maillot and a women's swimming costume.

In the 1950s, traditionally-styled leotards continued to be worn mainly by stage performers and circus actors, including the showgirls of Broadway, but leotards ...
... began to be used as simple and functional exercise garments, often in like schools and in fitness training. Not overly stylish back then, they were almost always black and worn together with thick tights. This was the case for the next twenty years or so until a style change in the 1970s, with more colourful leotards appearing on the scene, most often in ballet and exercise.

By the late 1970s the styles had changed dramatically and with the disco craze in full swing the garment became more colourful and trendy, so it could now be worn as both exercise and street wear, remember also that exercise had become popular about the same time and so aerobics helped to increase the popularity of the garment and give rise to yet more crazy designs. These garments were produced in a variety of nylon and spandex materials, as well as the more traditional cotton previously used for plain coloured leotards and tights.

Exercise videos by celebrities such as Jane Fonda also helped to promote the leotard as the ideal garment for exercise as many women aspired to be fit and healthy. In fact, the famous dancewear company Danskin had a boom during this period, producing a wide variety of leotards for dance, aerobics and street wear.

By the late 1980s, leotards for exercise wear had become little more than bikini bottoms with straps over the shoulders, generally worn with cropped shirts. A certain degree of sex appeal that was generated back in the 70s continued on and was exemplified in the mid 80's through to the mid 90's when leotards were popularly worn as tops with jeans, especially skinny jeans. This was not to last and by the mid 1990s, leotards had been almost completely replaced for exercise wear by the sports bra and shorts by many. Today, however, the leotard has had somewhat of a comeback in the mainstream and is, as ever, indispensible to professional performers of all kinds.

Europe's leading online retailer of dancewear - Dance Direct.For further information regarding our range of leotards, please visit our website at http://www.dancedirect.com.