Look of the Week: Kendall Jenner swaps trousers for tights

Kendall Jenner’s latest street style snap is a masterclass in minimalism, with one notable element missing: trousers.

The model was this week spotted in Los Angeles leaving a photoshoot in nothing but a pair of heeled slingbacks, black Calzedonia tights and a classic navy knit crewneck. The entire look — including the exposed underwear detail — was fresh off Bottega Veneta’s Spring-Summer 2023 runway, and was completed with one of the label’s $4,200 brass-handle Sardine Bags and an armful of yellow sunflowers.

While much of Bottega’s latest collection was engineered for a double take — including leather trousers designed to impersonate a pair of jeans — Jenner’s look was exactly as it seemed. And although going tights-only is undoubtedly comfortable (it’s the kind of outfit you might wear around the house while you wait for your washed-too-late black miniskirt to dry on the radiator), doing so in public ups the ante.

It is a silhouette we’ve seen before, however. There’s a chic, dancer-like quality to Jenner’s outfit, akin to a Bob Fosse chorus girl or an off-duty ballerina. The latter is right on trend, if the meteoric rise of “balletcore” — a TikTok-centric fashion trend with more than 142.6 million views — is anything to go by. Borrowing heavily from classical dance, the aesthetic has spilled onto this season’s runways, from Sandy Liang’s satin Pointe Shoes and everyday tutus to Miu Miu’s ballet flats.

To keen-eyed fashion historians, Jenner’s outfit may also be a reference to It-girl and Andy Warhol muse, Edie Sedgewick. The American actor and model made T-shirts, tights and visible underwear her signature look in the 1960s. In fact, so notorious was Segdewick’s trouser-lessness, Life magazine published a 1965 piece about her style titled “The Girl with the Black Tights.”

Edie Sedgwick stars in “Ciao! Manhattan” (1972) directed by John Palmer and David Weisman. Credit: Court Prods/Kobal/Shutterstock

“The cropped-mop girl with the eloquent legs is doing more for black tights than anybody since Hamlet,” read the article. “Her style may not be for everybody, but its spirited wackiness is just right for lively girls with legs like Edie’s.”…