Posted by Nylons Rule on March 30, 2001 at 09:46:06:
Do you ever wonder how trends get started, and because one "trail blazer" tries something, before you know it, it becomes normal and the acceptable thing to do? One woman train commuter in New York decided to start wearing gym shoes for the walk from the station to her office, and suddenly over half the women office workers who commute by train do the same thing. All of a sudden, what was considered totally unacceptable and ridiculous, is now the norm. The same is true with the trend to discard nylons. When you look at the magazine pictures from the Academy Awards and the Emmy's now a good many of the actresses still dress up in the long evening gowns and high heeled, open toes sandals, but the legs are bare. Until recently, no one would have been caught dead without nylons, while wearing formal attire! Well into the 60's, women always wore heels, or at least dresses to go anywhere, even shopping. Then, Mary Tyler Moore (Laura Petry) and Liz Montgomery (Samantha Stevens) decided that it was perfectly OK to wear slacks, and the trend continued to the point where today during most occasions, women dress almost exactly like men. Even the shoe styles have gotten extremely masuline. How do these extreme changes in what is considered acceptable or unacceptable start, and how can they sweep across the country like wildfire so quickly and thoroughly (usually, I might add, the change is for the worse)? Give me the days when men dressed like men, and women dressed like women, and both were glad to do so.