Time: Tights are now a fall fashion staple—but they were once a revolutionary style statement

As the fall season begins, many women across the United States and the world are getting ready for “tights season,” the moment when the cooler weather means it’s time to pair skirts or dresses with a little extra warmth on the legs. Some may be looking forward to the fall fashion opportunities, and some dreading sagging knees or the necessity of dabbing clear nail polish on runs. But when tights first became a wardrobe staple, they signified something that went far beyond a simple change of season: freedom.

While tights were convenient, they also helped to tell a new story about young women’s place in society. Young women dressed like mini versions of their mothers in the ‘50s, but the ‘60s brought on clothes that belonged distinctly to a new generation. In the 1960s, the average American age of marriage for women was about 20, and the average age of having a baby was 21, but the young women participating in the era’s revolutionary wave often rejected the expectation that they would become wives and mothers that early. Their wardrobes reflected that idea by taking on a girlish spin.

One group in particular seized on the youthful look: the Mods. Newspapers described the Mods as “post diaper,” “dressed like fugitives from kindergarten” and “cartoon versions of third-graders.” One designer, who was fed up with grown women wearing childish silhouettes, told Newspaper Enterprise in 1965 that the Mod girl “looks as silly as though she had stuck a lollipop in her mouth.”

“The Youthquakers follow another road. They repeal female sexuality by rolling back the years to pre-puberty and even younger. How could a chap imagine making a pass at a girl-child in rompers? The cops would come running from four directions,” The Daily Standard reported in 1966.

Read the full story on Time.