Childhood tights

[Brajan32]

Who of you wore tights in your childhood? I live Poland, in '80 and '90 children tights was very common and popular clothing for boys and girls. I also wore them and i hate them because seams to me ro girlish. They were worn from early fall to late spring. I usualy wore them under my pants at home, outside and to school. I know other kids often wore tights without pants at home especialy boys as normal home clothing. I never do that. Of course, my parents and grandparents wanted me to walk like that, but I was embaress and refuse. This was because tights were cheaper than pants. I teased in school many times because of tights when I'm must change before PE and many boys did. I wore them until I was 12 and never again until 2021. Later I wore disgusting long johns call "kalesony" until i discovered thermal underwear. 

Now kids and adults wear tights as a underwear, sport uniform or casual with shorts. Me to?

I recently bought 3 pairs (photo) of ski tights. These are children's tights but they come in large ones so they fit me.

[ValentinesStuff]

My family used a couple of different types. One type was a knit white long john, that we wore either as pajamas or under our clothes in the winter.

The second was a more colorful type that fit closer, dance clothing.

 

Oddly we had a weird name for them, probably a badly pronounced Polish word. My father's parents were from Poland, and we used some Polish words commonly. 

[Brajan32]

33 minutes ago, ValentinesStuff said:

Oddly we had a weird name for them, probably a badly pronounced Polish word

Yeah. Polish language can be diffcult ?

We call them "rajtuzy" or "rajstopy". Last one is for footed tights. Can you tell more abaut your tights?

[NannaAnnabelle]

Those are kinda neat! They look sort of like ski racing skins. 

[Brajan32]

14 hours ago, NannaAnnabelle said:

Those are kinda neat!

Indeed they are. 

They have very cool look. Tights in my childhood was ugly,they rolled down on ankles, slide down from butt and have bad color. I wish a had those, meybe i wear them much longer as a kid. 

[Little Sherri]

This is really interesting - reading this actually brought back memories I had forgotten about. My younger brother used to like to wear tights as a little kid - the same as you describe, he would run around and play in them. We live in Canada so they had a practical side in that they were warm. I was sometimes put into tights as well, but I didn't like them, because I thought they were for girls - primarily because the tights that ended up in my drawers were mostly hand-me-downs from my older sister. I was always very sensitive about being given her clothes, because my parents were always conscious about saving money, so they wanted to convince me that my wearing whatever I inherited from her was "fine" and not "girly". Funny enough, when I got a little older, pink brand-name shirts (like Polo) were being worn by boys, and in my early teens I used to look forward to borrowing or being given certain items. But that came later. As a little kid, I was very sensitive to the idea that anything I had on might look girly, probably because my earliest memories of hand-me-downs were pink plastic pants that I had to wear sometimes, and training panties in pretty colours, whereas I wanted superheroes on my underwear.  

Quite a while later, I accused my mom of making me wear those pink plastic pants when I was younger, and she denied it, and then, much to my surprise, she excavated out a pair of them that had been in a box in the basement for probably half a decade at that point. And she was partially right - the plastic pants themselves weren't pink, just the elastics. So, my point stood - they were definitely girls' plastic pants.  Similarly, I had a pair of tights that I got from my sister that were white, except for a band of pink hearts right at the waist. My mom used to make me wear them under my jeans if we went out to play in the depths of winter. So of course one time I was sledding down a hill with a group of boys from our neighbourhood, and I bent over to retie my boots or whatever, and this kid named Chuck said "He's wearin' girls' underwear!!!!", because of the pink hearts that appeared at my lower back. 

So from that point forward, tights were tainted for me, and I would only agree to wear them to bed at night, never anywhere else. Even then, I didn't like it, because I felt like everyone could see my diaper through them. 

However, I guess my brother was far enough removed from my sister in age (about 6 years) that he didn't see tights as being for girls, because my mom bought them for him in red and dark blue, whereas the ones I was given were mostly white or cream coloured cast-offs from my sister. 

My family originated in the UK, but I married into a Polish family, and a couple of years ago, we spent two weeks in Poland, and true to your point, @Brajan32, many of the younger kids in the family, boys and girls, were running around in tights. Which I guess makes sense - why they became gender-specific to girls in North America, I don't know. Anyone can look cute in tights. 

[Brajan32]

5 hours ago, Little Sherri said:

So from that point forward, tights were tainted for me, and I would only agree to wear them to bed at night, never anywhere else. Even then, I didn't like it, because I felt like everyone could see my diaper through them. 

I wonder where did you stay in Poland? What were those years? How was it?

In my childhood days, I wore plain, brown, beige tights. There were probably other colors, but I don't remember them. I have never worn typical girl tights, they were unisex. Even so, the boys at school were teasing me a lot. Once in PE lesson, when I wanted to hide my tights under my sweat pants, one bully dropped them down to my ankles, revealing the tights . After this incident, I didn't wear tights anymore to school. 

The day of PE lessons was a nightmare for boys in tights. Before the lesson, you had to change into exercise clothes, including taking off your tights. It was a dream opportunity for school bullies. Some of us learned to put on shorts under tights and then take them off with pants, which was difficult. Others took them down the toilet before PE lessons. 

Times have changed. Tights are worn more and more willingly by kids and adults, especially as sportswear.

Now I wish I had wanted to wear them more often. Yesterday I will buy another pair as in the picture.

[Little Sherri]

20 hours ago, Brajan32 said:

I wonder where did you stay in Poland? What were those years? How was it?

 

We were mostly in Gdansk, although we travelled around as well. This was in 2018. Hopefully we can go back, maybe next year. We had a great time - Poland is a lovely country. Great food and great beer as well. 

[Toecaps Denton]

Interesting that this is bringing out just Polish folks. I'm American, and hope I can answer. Like @Little Sherri and @Brajan32, I grew up feeling like they were just for girls. I definitely liked them on girls, and actually was kind of curious what they felt like; I'd often see a pretty girl my age in, say, an Easter dress or Sailor dress, which would always be paired with white opaque tights (sometimes cable knit, which I especially liked), and maybe black mary janes. These were my earliest fetishes; so early that I didn't yet understand fetishes. 

But again, I never wore them (or footed pajamas), because I thought they looked too girly, even if I was kind of curious to wear such clothes. This was in the early 80's. They're still very much a turnon on a college girl. But I don't really have that curiosity anymore. I'm a rather manly-looking man, and I like super-girlish young women and their clothing. But would never wear any of it.

[Brajan32]

On 7/25/2023 at 10:51 PM, Toecaps Denton said:

Interesting that this is bringing out just Polish folks.

Why Polish folks? I think i can aswer that. My choldhood was on 80 and 90. Poland in that times was communist and post communist country. It was hard to get everything, including clothes. Same was in others countries of Warsaw Pact like DDR, Chechslovakia. Tights was cheap, practical and easy avealible especially in families whose had couple kids. For formal occasions tights always was under plants. They could have little holes on the knees or be mended. Pants always must by clean and nice becouse we had only two pairs for example. Tights for kids replaced today's home sweatpants. Personally I had home pants and don't wore tights without them. For me there was no problem to wore them as long as they under pants. Of course they try to convince me to wear them whiteout pants at home but I don't want this (today I regret this decision;). Real problems start when I started school and we need change before PE. At this time many boys giving up wearings times including me. Classmates laughing boys who's still wear tights at this age. I know stories that the boys who laughed the most still wore tights at home. 

I replaced tights with long johnes becouse there is no option to wear nothing under my pants in fall, winter and spring. Long johns was white, baggy and had fly in other words - ugly. But long johns was for big older boys and tights was for little boys and sissies.

Now in Poland kids wear tights (footless) but now they called thermal underwear.  There's no ugly long johnes. It is no exceptional when you see boy wearing tights under shorts.

[flash890]

I'm curious about these tights, especially the modern ones. Do you mind linking them here? Also do tights refer to a type of clothes specific to Poland because I'm under the impression that tights aren't outerwear but they can be exposed as long as the crotch is covered by "proper" outerwear. From my understanding of what tights are, they are form fitting "pants" that go from the waist to toe and can range from slightly sheer to fishnet.

[BabyJune]

6 hours ago, flash890 said:

I'm curious about these tights, especially the modern ones. Do you mind linking them here? Also do tights refer to a type of clothes specific to Poland because I'm under the impression that tights aren't outerwear but they can be exposed as long as the crotch is covered by "proper" outerwear. From my understanding of what tights are, they are form fitting "pants" that go from the waist to toe and can range from slightly sheer to fishnet.

You might be thinking of leggings, which are heaver than tights. The weight of the fabric determines what they are: stockings (panty hose), tights, leggings. that go from lightweiht (opaque fabric) to heavy.

[Little Sherri]

1 hour ago, BabyJune said:

You might be thinking of leggings, which are heaver than tights. The weight of the fabric determines what they are: stockings (panty hose), tights, leggings. that go from lightweiht (opaque fabric) to heavy.

This is more or less my understanding of it as well. Pantyhose (or nylons), and tights, are pretty much universally covered with some other article of clothing - a leotard, a skirt or dress, shorts. Leggings are outerwear, like track pants are - my kids practically live in leggings. Lululemon yoga pants and about 5000 knockoffs of them are examples of this. They can be worn under a skirt or dress but that would be a less common use of them. 

[flash890]

On 11/8/2023 at 6:41 AM, BabyJune said:

You might be thinking of leggings, which are heaver than tights. The weight of the fabric determines what they are: stockings (panty hose), tights, leggings. that go from lightweiht (opaque fabric) to heavy.

Leggings from my understanding are footless

On 11/8/2023 at 8:36 AM, Little Sherri said:

This is more or less my understanding of it as well. Pantyhose (or nylons), and tights, are pretty much universally covered with some other article of clothing - a leotard, a skirt or dress, shorts. Leggings are outerwear, like track pants are - my kids practically live in leggings. Lululemon yoga pants and about 5000 knockoffs of them are examples of this. They can be worn under a skirt or dress but that would be a less common use of them. 

From my reading of Brajan32 post, tights are sometimes worn as outerwear, which is whats leading to my confusion on what he is calling tights. The picture at the start of this thread fits what I think tights are for the most part in that it's form fitting and have feet.

[Little Sherri]

10 hours ago, flash890 said:

From my reading of Brajan32 post, tights are sometimes worn as outerwear,

This seems to be a Polish or possibly European phenomenon. Kids do seem to wear them as outwear there - younger kids, anyway, both boys and girls. The seem to be of a heavier knit, though. So, they enclose the feet, they still look a bit like "underwear". IE, exposed seams, but, they come in a wide variety of colours and they're more opaque. The tights my kids wear under skirts and dresses wouldn't work as outerwear because they don't completely conceal their underwear, whereas in the examples of this I've seen over in Poland, that's not the case. 

[tommyneedsdiapers90]

i had some for like playing in the snow. my mom called them long johns but i knew long johns were like for your whole body, these were clearly just tights. they were itchy as hell but man did they feel nice when id get them wet because i didnt want to have mom take off all my clothes so i could come inside and pee lol

[Brajan32]

On 11/13/2023 at 5:35 AM, flash890 said:

From my reading of Brajan32 post, tights are sometimes worn as outerwear, which is whats leading to my confusion on what he is calling tights. The picture at the start of this thread fits what I think tights are for the most part in that it's form fitting and have feet.

Yes, tights sometimes is used as outwear but mostly in home, in rare occasions somewhere on camps etc. but always indoor. It's comfy, if you don't have any clothing to change you just take pants off and and play in yours tights. Another example, if you back home after school and parents ask you to get change you just simply take pants off and stay in tights. Many boys wear tights in this way.

Couple years ago I saw a older boy who wear tights public in mountain shelter.

Yes. Footed tights is no popular as they used to be among boys. But footles sports or thermal tights gain popularity year after year. There is nothing special if you see someone wearing tights public with shorts.

 

[flash890]

On 11/22/2023 at 6:29 AM, Brajan32 said:

Yes, tights sometimes is used as outwear but mostly in home, in rare occasions somewhere on camps etc. but always indoor. It's comfy, if you don't have any clothing to change you just take pants off and and play in yours tights. Another example, if you back home after school and parents ask you to get change you just simply take pants off and stay in tights. Many boys wear tights in this way.

The tights you mentioned buying look pretty cool, do you mind sharing where you bought them?

[TheJ]

In Finland it at least used to be typical for younger children to just wear long underwear or tights indoors. During the cold winter months you'd just take off your snow pants or snow suit after you came home, and you'd be left with tights or long underwear that you had worn underneath.

As you got older, you'd more often opt to change into something else, such as sweatpants, to wear indoors. I would say by the age of ten, I more often wore sweatpants indoors than long underwear. Boys only really wore tights here as toddlers when I was a child, which was the 00's. That's partly why I now have a few pairs of tights myself, plus that I find them more comfortable than sticking the legs of my thermal underwear into my socks.

[Brajan32]

On 11/25/2023 at 5:09 AM, flash890 said:

The tights you mentioned buying look pretty cool, do you mind sharing where you bought them?

I bought them on Tchibo. That tights are for kids generally but they offered they in larger sizes (172). In comments I saw that many adults buy them for themselves so as I.

In my childhood and teens I never stay long in just long underwear (tights and later long johns). I always feel shame when somebody saw me in tights or even knew I wear them under pants, so after change I quickly remove tights or put on sweats on them. I don't like them, I don't like put them on etc. but I alweys have storage feeling about them similar like Little Sherri with diapers.