Posted on Mon, May. 29, 2006email thisprint this
Leotards stretch the limits of fashion return
1970s icon fits fall's slim lines
By Booth Moore
Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times
Madonna's unitard references the '70s band, Abba. Leotards are
making a fashion comeback.

It was the fashion climax to the whole sweat-slicked, muscle-
thumping show at the Forum in Inglewood, Calif., this week – Madonna
on all fours, crawling cheetah-like down the stage in lustrous
Lycra, with those thundering thighs and that winged hair. And it
could mean only one thing: Leotards are back, baby.

The leotard, that vestige of disco nights and Jane Fonda days, is
seeing new life in American Apparel stores, vintage boutiques and on
fashion magazine covers, riding the same wave of 1970s and '80s
nostalgia that brought the scourge of skinny jeans and leggings to
the runways for fall.

"This has been a year of disco for her," says Madonna's stylist
Arianne Phillips, who designed the costumes for the concert tour
along with Jean-Paul Gaultier. "There have been lots of
inspirations – everything from `Saturday Night Fever,' to `Starlight
Express' to `Fame.' "

Still a fashion force at 47, Madonna wears several leotards in the
show. And if you didn't already know that she works out three hours
a day, it becomes abundantly clear when you see her jumping around
like a modern Jack LaLanne with nary a dimple in sight. At the
opening of the disco portion of the show, Madonna rips off a white
John Travolta suit with a flick of the wrist to reveal a one-
shouldered unitard with ribbons of purple Swarovski crystals
rippling across the torso, a replica of a costume worn by Abba in
the late 1970s.

Then, for a finale, Madonna strips to something even skimpier – a
smoky purple tank leotard, worn with flesh-colored fishnet stockings
cut to the knee. Both styles were custom made by Bill Hargate
Costumes in West Hollywood, and Madonna gets fresh ones every week.

The leotard is named after French aerialist Jules Leotard, who
debuted the body-clinging garment in 1859 when he performed his
first flying trapeze act. His was a full-body, hand-knit jersey
creation that stretched from the ankles to the wrists, more of a
unitard really. And legend has it the way his assets were displayed
was as much a part of attracting crowds to the Cirque Napoleon as
his high-flying feats.

Performers in every arena, from ballet to burlesque, followed
Leotard's lead, including showgirls who wore flesh-colored body
stockings under their corsets so they would look flawless when they
stripped down to (almost) nothing.

Male ballet dancers wore full-body leotards with short trunks on top
until Vaslav Nijinsky left his off during a performance in Russia in
the early 1900s, says Kevin Jones, curator at the Fashion Institute
of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles. "The czarina, who had a
box close to the stage, had quite a shock."

But the origins of the leotard go back much further, to late 18th
century France, Jones says, when colored body stockings were the
favored undergarments for the diaphanous, Roman-inspired gowns of
the day.

Flesh-colored leotards once again turned up in lingerie drawers in
the 1960s, when designers such as Pierre Cardin and Rudi Gernreich
began making dresses with see-through cutouts.

But it was active wear designer Bonnie August who brought the
leotard into mainstream fashion during the disco era, helping to
popularize the nocturnal uniform of a unitard or leotard with a
wraparound skirt. An early proponent of using Lycra spandex, August
created her most influential designs at Danskin. In 1979, People
magazine ran a story on August with the headline, "Danskin Designer
Bonnie August Has Got Almost Everybody Going Around in Next to
Nothing." Her collections have been displayed at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in New York and the Experience Music Project in
Seattle.

At the same time, leotards were becoming entrenched in popular
culture. Venice, Calif., beachfront roller-skating had its own
leotarded look, as modeled by Linda Blair in the so-bad-it's-good
1979 film "Roller Boogie." Rock 'n' roll style icon Stevie Nicks
posed on the cover of Fleetwood Mac's 1977 "Rumours" album in a
black leotard and ballet shoes, with a diaphanous Margi Kent dress
on top.

Heavy metal has always had a heady relationship with unitards and
leotards too: Freddie Mercury, David Lee Roth, Stryper. These days,
the Darkness' Justin Hawkins is the keeper of that flame. Leotards
and unitards are also the garb of superheroes, and thus many a
Halloween costume.

No passing fad, the look continued in the mainstream because it
suited a range of sizes, and complemented a growing interest in
fitness. After Jane Fonda released her first workout video in 1982,
women were always dressed as if they were coming or going to an
aerobics studio. Olivia Newton-John got physical and in 1983,
Jennifer Beals cavorted in an oversized sweatshirt, leotard and
legwarmers in "Flashdance." Bodywear by Danskin, Carushka, Champion,
Marika, Gilda Marx and Jacques Moret sold well throughout the 1980s
and into the early 1990s.

At the same time, athletic leotards became more fashionable. At the
Seoul Olympics in 1988, gold medal winner Florence Griffith-Joyner
gained as much attention for her flamboyant one-legged leotards and
fluorescent fingernails as for her record sprints.

In 1985, Donna Karan brought the leotard into the office as the
bodysuit. With the ease of a T-shirt and the polish of a blouse, it
smoothed out all the bumps and ripples on the body, giving women the
freedom to climb the corporate ladder in their power suits.

The leotard and the bodysuit faded out of fashion in the late 1990s
when the style mantra became `the baggier, the better.' But with the
fall 2006 season's new emphasis on a slim silhouette, the leotard is
poised for a return to women's wardrobes.

Doris Raymond, owner of the Los Angeles vintage boutique The Way We
Wore, received several inquires about leotards after Madonna wore a
1970s Danskin piece purchased at the store on the February cover of
Elle magazine.

Raymond has acquired a few Danskins, as well as some Norma Kamali
pieces – all from dead stock. "But with the resurgence of the 1980s,
I'm looking for more."

And American Apparel, the hyper-sexualized, Los Angeles-based T-
shirt empire catering to kids born long after leotards were
fashionable the first time around, is selling four styles.

"An old girlfriend of mine came to me with a sketch last summer,"
says the brand's chief executive, Dov Charney. "It took a while for
everyone to get it, but customers seem to be catching on now. It's
just such a sexy piece."