Dancewear as streetwear.  That’s what the 60s did for the black leotard, a favorite of the mods and beatniks.  The leotard was a favorite of famed Andy Warhol muse, Edie Sedgwick, and if it was good enough for Edie, the woman whose style would be emulated throughout the era and for generations to come, then it was good enough for any of us; or at least any of us with a dancer’s bod.

Slinky and sexy, the black leotard was the first step forward for the swinging 60s to bringing in the revealing clothes women would soon be wearing.  With long sleeves and a scooped neck, it could be layered over and over again, making it easy to deal with whatever the day brought on.  It was skin-tight, so naturally, not everyone could wear it.  As such, the trend didn’t catch on beyond a few hot moments, certainly not into the mainstream, and it never really caught on for those of us who took one look in the mirror and got rid of that bad scene.  That’s okay, though… sometimes it’s better to not have a trend play itself completely out.  We wouldn’t want our ballerinas stuck with a “fad.”