Figure 1.--Here we a Russian boy in 1977. He is weating tights with short psnts. It is not possible to determine the colors of these tights. Tan or beige seem the most likely, but grey is also possible. Other colors are possible, but they seem the most likeky. Unlike the West, the Soviet Union did not have mail order catalogs which had information on color and other details.

We notice a much wider range of colors for tights than for long stockings. We are not entirely sure who colors were available when tights first appeared in the 1970s. Photography was still largely black-and-white in the 1970s and thus it id sifficult to assess what colors were being worn at first. By the 1980s, however, we begin to see color images and they show tights in all kinds of colors, including bright colors. And in the 1990s we see not only bright colors, but prints done on the tights as well. Some colors were worn by both boys and girls, but there were age and gender conventions associated with some of the colors. As with long stockings, white continued to be the color worn for dressy, formal occassions.

Blue

Older boys wore dark blue tights. Younger boys might wear royal blue tights. Like blue tights were worn like wight tights for special occassions.

Black

Black tights were also worn by Russian boys. Black tights were considered appropriate for dress wear. Black tights might be worn for visits, birthday and New Year parties etc. This was a change from long stockings. During the Soviet-era, black long stockings were not worn.

Brown and Tan

Older boys prefered muted colors such as dark brown, light brown, and beige. A Russian reader confirms that, "Russian boys preferred plain colors like black, brown, or gray. Some mothers chose bright colors or white for younger boys." We note a Russian boy wearing what look luke tan tights for play, in this case fishing.

Grey

Grey was another color acceptable to older boys.

Red

White

I'm less sure about white. A Russian fashion magazine here shows a boy wearing white tights, but note that he is a pre-school boy (figure 1). I'm not sure, however, how common this was. A Russian reader writes, "When I was a boy in the 1980s, mothers already didn't use white tights with shorts for special occassions, especially school events. I remember, when I was in a third class (10 years old) the teacher told us to come to school neatly dressed for a school portrait. We all wore dark blue uniforms with either short or long pants. One boy came in went in white tights and dark-blue shorts. As I remember, we all laughed at his outfit. By this time it was common to wear tights at home or under long pants, but we all considered it childish to wear tights (especially white tights) with short pants to school."

Yellow

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Created: 7:55 AM 9/28/2010
Last updated: 7:55 AM 9/28/2010