It’s official: fishnets have gone from striptease to street style. One of fashion’s most divisive taboos are cropping up everywhere from the red carpet to the Gucci catwalk.
Lot of girls are succumbing to the trend now and getting fishnet socks. If you are thinking they are of the thigh-high variety, I’ll stop you right there. They are the length of your average sport sock, and just about as sexy.
With the birth of punk in the 1960s, the sexuality of fishnet stockings was subverted by Goths and vamps who ripped their fishnets and paired them with stomping boots and studs. In the 1990s, fishnets were embraced simultaneously by Hollywood darlings and indie grunge icons.
Embellished fishnets are the new connotation of saucy. It was once believed that fishnets were to exclusive to ladies of the night, the exotic dancers, the escorts and the like. But when fashion falls in love with a trend, it is next to impossible to stop it from making a comeback. People nowadays are a lot more experimental with their looks. They like, no they love bold and sassy. So the fashion industry decided to bring back the trend that is the key to the ultimate leg accessory.
Currently, embellished fishnets are enjoying a renaissance as fashion revels in a 1990s throwback. They’re a favourite of influencers and Insta-babes and the most daring (Kim Kardashian among them) wear their tights hooked up over the waistband of their jeans, flat tummies covered in a spindly diamond criss-cross. For a social network built on image sharing, where nudity is banned but empires can be built by posting a bikini shot a day (seriously, the account is @abikiniaday and has 652,000 followers), fishnet stockings are the ultimate Instagram fodder.
We find such sartorial tropes far more titillating than just naked flesh – there’s a reason fishnet, lace and sheer gussets are the bedrock (ahem) of lingerie.
Embellished fishnets have been embraced by the high street and high fashion, a trend born in the throngs of fashion week that has filtered out into the mainstream.
Yes, the deniers are back but wearing plain, opaque tights can leave things feeling a little vestal; instead break up your ensemble with a pair of fishnet stockings peeking out underneath your hemline. The important thing to remember here is to keep your skirt length – to the knee or the mid– otherwise, you might not look exactly as you planned to do so. Fashion is a risky game and you need to play your cards just right.
So, how to wear fishnets now?
They are not punk or grunge and certainly not glamorous. Baggy ‘mom’ jeans, flat loafers and loose band T-shirts are the perfect foil for their potent sexuality. Embellished fishnets are a trend that is going to take you places.
As with all things in fashion, fishnets are destined to fall out of favour as the fashion pack takes to the next big thing, which I think could be the final frontier in fashion taboos; socks and sandals. More specifically, socks and high heels. Jenner was rocking the look at Cannes recently and where she goes, her legions of fans will fearlessly follow.
