Breaking the bare leg taboo
FOR generations, it had been unthinkable for a lady to go without tights in public, let alone a member of the Royal Family.
Diana was the first royal to break ranks on the stuffy rule, ditching hosiery in summer to allow her tanned, race-horse legs to be seen au naturel —a trend which revolutionised the way women dress to this day.
The first time Diana was seen tights-free was on the school run, taking William and Harry to Wetherby pre-prep in 1989.
Her off-duty habit wasn’t much remarked on — for one thing, she was wearing calf-length skirts at that point — but by 1991, as her hemlines rose, it became obvious Diana was daring to bare her legs on official occasions as well.
By the late Nineties, save for the times she wore 10-denier black tights, her bare legs in dresses well above the knee were just part of the progressive style she’d made her own.