Thread: Leg warmers - back in style?

Maybe I'm slow to catch on to the latest trends, but I was at the mall today and saw several pairs of leg warmers at "Claire's". I have secretly been wanting to wear some of my own with leggings and a turkish bedla belt ever since I started watching Hadia's Raqs Eharqui VHS tapes.
Have they made an appearance at any of your classes?

Yeah, I was wearing a pair a couple of years ago. I heart them. They make me feel like a Proper Dancer.

I think they are sort of in style for the retro 80's look. I love them for the colors and stripes and wear them often! This look usually results in my mother teasing me that I look like pippi longstocking. I see it as proof that some parts of me will never grow up.

Heh,here in Sweden they sneaked into street fashion again more than 5 years ago(we have awfully cold climate here up north)
I love them!

...your comment about Hadia made me remember why Raqia was and still is my classroom fashion icon-she was the first teacher who´s legs(and full body lines) I could see!
So my students can´t miss a thing when their teacher wobbles around decked out in neon lycra+a tank top that screams "GO LIFE"or "MEN´S SIZES"
(When I´m a student myself in classes or w/s,I pick something more forgiving like top with floaty sleeves and jazz pants. )

My troupe has them, one of the girls gave them as Christmas gifts this year.

LOL. This reminds me of a funny story. My troupe used to provide dancers for a local greek restaurant on the weekends. My fellow troupe mate and bhuzzer Nayastrance was there one night. The area we waited in between sets was kind of cold, so she had put leg warmers on under her costume skirt to keep warm between sets. The owner of the place had a bad habit of just starting your music when he wanted you to dance without any warning. You'd find yourself trying to scurry out of your coverup and onto the dance floor. Anyway, Nayastrance found herself in this very predicament and forgot about the leg warmers. She danced a whole set in them, twirls and all, I'm sure. I know she was aware at one point that she had them on, but it was too late to try to remove them. Maybe she'll chime in here with her own details, but it made me laugh when she told me about it. I believe she was wearing a very elegant Sim ..... with leg warmers.

I have a pair. It's cold in Maine and I like Melo pants so legwarmers seemed a great fit for that.

I wear them all the time too!

But I will always be a girl of the 80's, and dance classes are a good excuse for wearing them

I *love* them for class - great with any kind of melo-style pant, and I can still dance barefoot.

Not so sure about on stage ... unless it was a fusion number... but never with my sparkies.

Originally Posted by emma-bessa

Heh,here in Sweden they sneaked into street fashion again more than 5 years ago(we have awfully cold climate here up north)
I love them!

LOL I was living in Germany at that time and yes, they were everywhere!

I wear them all the time cool or not. Keeps my muscles warm between teaching and gigs.

Here in Germany everyone is wearing them this winter - with skirts or on top of pants.

In the classroom it has this pro-dancer/ballerina vibe. Also in the flamenco school in Madrid everyone would wear them. On top very special: recycling of the fishnet stockings as bolero/sleeves, as tribal fusion dancers do. When they'd be a little ragged, you get a nice artsy-punk look, together with a strict hairdo and a folksy flower in the hair and nice eye-make-up I think it looked very dance-nerdy sexy!

did they ever go out of style? I've been wearing them for years, and have pairs from back when I was a ballet dancer. They're awesome, and practical! Especially in winter! I say rock 'em!

Back in the day, we could always tell the new ballet dancers/wannabes who were likely to drop out by when they wore leg warmers. the "fashion dancers" wore the leg warmers all the time & thought it was a fashion statement, wore them to fit in. The long time dancers wore them functionally to keep muscles warm between bouts of activity and took them off while actively dancing. I LOVE my leg warmers- especially my stirrup style angoras. Enough foot/floor contact for traction, but keeps my foot warm until we're through warm ups in class. My poor students are used to me gradually stripping & hurling things off the floor- warm up jacket, overshirt, leg warmers are the last to go- but I just get so cold so easily!

I think legwarmers hit general day-to-day fashion here about 2 years ago- I do wear them under long skirts, but I always have. I also wear wool tights under my slacks- but hey, I'm an Alaskan girl!

www.sockdreams.com has some great legwarmers, btw- that's where I got my favorite stirrup pair.

ETA- arm warmers & long fingerless gloves rock too- & like Nouria said, great way to recycle worn out tights or go for an industrial/artsy/punk look.

I have a friend who is making these

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...75966165774643

We dance an event outside in Florida every month and sometimes it is darn cold. Next time, legwarmers for me!

Re: Leg warmers - back in style?
LOL. This reminds me of a funny story. My troupe used to provide dancers for a local greek restaurant on the weekends. My fellow troupe mate and bhuzzer Nayastrance was there one night. The area we waited in between sets was kind of cold, so she had put leg warmers on under her costume skirt to keep warm between sets. The owner of the place had a bad habit of just starting your music when he wanted you to dance without any warning. You'd find yourself trying to scurry out of your coverup and onto the dance floor. Anyway, Nayastrance found herself in this very predicament and forgot about the leg warmers. She danced a whole set in them, twirls and all, I'm sure. I know she was aware at one point that she had them on, but it was too late to try to remove them. Maybe she'll chime in here with her own details, but it made me laugh when she told me about it. I believe she was wearing a very elegant Sim ..... with leg warmers.




How funny! Made my morning!

Yes. Not only did I forget I had my legwarmers on, they were not cute or stylish legwarmers. they were a pair of very thick, very old black leg warmers that were all tatty from ballet classes. My music came on and I booked it out onto to the raised stage and was really feeling a great groove. I started to warm up and thought to myself, "my legs feel awfully warm. My knees are sweating". Then it hit me. Legwarmers! The skirt had thigh high slits on both sides and I'd been twirling and doing these butt shimmies with my leg extended and all kinds of leg revealing tricks. As soon as I realized they were on I gracefully came down off the stage and moved on to the part of my routine where I rotated amongst the tables. This helped b/c my legs weren't elevated by being on the stage. Still, it was embarrassing.
I do love legwarmers. I wear them all the time for dance classes, belly dance and otherwise. I wear them because they keep my legs and feet warm. I've worn them for years. Now that they're fashionable, its fun to find cute legwarmers but for dance class they generally don't hug the leg closely enough to stay up in something like ballet class.

I work at a middle school and all the girls are wearing them with pants

Originally Posted by Lara L

Back in the day, we could always tell the new ballet dancers/wannabes who were likely to drop out by when they wore leg warmers. the "fashion dancers" wore the leg warmers all the time & thought it was a fashion statement, wore them to fit in. The long time dancers wore them functionally to keep muscles warm between bouts of activity and took them off while actively dancing.

This. I have seen so many newbie (or even not new, but focused on the look rather than function) dancers wear loose legwarmers even when they scrunch down and hinder their feet. It can be dangerous! I've seen dancers fall from loose warmers or long sweatpants getting under their feet. Be careful....

That should be your first concern -- if you are recovering from an injury (in which case you may only wear one warmer on one leg, that is allowable...), your classroom is cold, or for whatever other reason you need help warming up in class, then wear 'em no matter how they look! But yes, they are "fashionable" now too. I think within the dance community they've always had that nerdy fashion vibe, because people understand why you are wearing them.

hmmm they just do not work with our style here. puzzeling to me. 12 years of ballet i never wore them. then they became street wear. i never follow fads.....they are more colorful this time around.

I love leg warmers they are also good if you practice floorwork. I have them in several colors. I'm glad they are back in style.

Sorry, girls but I'm old. The 80's were the worst for fashion, hair styles, and music.

Leg warmers....yuck

My husband bought me some Jolly Roger leg warmers a few years ago so I could wear them under my clothes to keep my legs warm when going outside in the winter. I also love wearing tall socks in the winter. I'll occasionally wear my legwarmers to class if it's really cold, but I wear them under my yoga pants.

Originally Posted by zamora

hmmm they just do not work with our style here. puzzeling to me. 12 years of ballet i never wore them. then they became street wear. i never follow fads.....they are more colorful this time around.

I think it really depends on how well you retain body heat. My hubby & I are about the same body type, but totally different on heat retention, so don't know if it's more metabolism or just some other genetic thing- I almost always feel cold, and my body temperature can plummet in an instant. I can be sweating up a storm one minute while active, the moment I stop I really do need to cover up. Hubby, on the other hand, stays warm for hours/days once he has warmed up. Conversely, if he ever does get really cold (which is rare) he takes forever to warm up too.

i haven't worn them in a long time. I live in SoCal and it's usually pretty warm in the studios.

When I was a ballerina, I used to wear two pair in class. A pair of ankle warmers and a pair which covered my calves. the top ones generally would come off after bar. As would the sweater / sweat shirt. My favorite pair of ankle warmers started life as a pair of acrylic cable knit knee socks. Pewter blue. The heels and toes wore out of one very quickly, so I made them into stirrups and rolled them and. voila! Ankle warmers.

Which of course was exactly what I needed as I had damaged my ankles several times. Keeping them warm when doing pointe was essential! this was also back in the day when I was going through a pair of point shoes in 3 weeks when not performing. So glad those days are behind me!

{{{HUGS}}}

I'm going to get some ;-) !!!

Originally Posted by rassicahl

Sorry, girls but I'm old. The 80's were the worst for fashion, hair styles, and music.

Leg warmers....yuck

I loved being a teenager the 80's I had the most totally awesome fun.

I love leg warmers! I wear them to most classes... I take them off once my feet/ankles feel warm enough. Sometimes forget them though & do well without...

This happened to me last summer at an outdoor Canada day (July 1st) gig where we were having sideways rain and wind at a ridiculously low temperature. Worse than leg-warmers, I was wearing work socks of the grey wool-with-red-stripe-on-top variety. With an elegant black bra and skirt! Wish it'd been leg-warmers, then at least it would have passed as comical. The video makes me cringe!

Originally Posted by shahla

LOL. This reminds me of a funny story. My troupe used to provide dancers for a local greek restaurant on the weekends. My fellow troupe mate and bhuzzer Nayastrance was there one night. The area we waited in between sets was kind of cold, so she had put leg warmers on under her costume skirt to keep warm between sets. The owner of the place had a bad habit of just starting your music when he wanted you to dance without any warning. You'd find yourself trying to scurry out of your coverup and onto the dance floor. Anyway, Nayastrance found herself in this very predicament and forgot about the leg warmers. She danced a whole set in them, twirls and all, I'm sure. I know she was aware at one point that she had them on, but it was too late to try to remove them. Maybe she'll chime in here with her own details, but it made me laugh when she told me about it. I believe she was wearing a very elegant Sim ..... with leg warmers.

I love legwarmers! Love them, love them, love them! I hope they always stay in style, but even if they don't I'll still wear them. They are just so cosy and warm and I really feel like a dancer when I wear them. I even sleep in them sometimes during the winter.