White stockings and stirrups: the Jil Sander look that took over Milan

Late February, Milan. In the off-white space overlooking the Sforza Castle where Jil Sander showed in the 1990s, skirts split open along their seams and, instead of skin, revealed a thigh wrapped in white. Soon after came leggings with stirrups, pulled taut under the arch and slid into patent court shoes. Nobody applauds a stocking, yet by the end of fashion week the leg was the detail buyers and editors kept bringing up. Within days, the same gesture had surfaced at Tod's and at Gucci.

Adding things, at Jil Sander

To see why a white stocking landed so hard, start with the label. Jil Sander, founded in 1968 and owned since 2021 by Renzo Rosso's OTB group, has always stood for reduction: impeccable fabrics, clean lines, nothing superfluous. Simone Bellotti, appointed creative director in March 2025, made his debut that September with a collection true to that idea. For his second, he did the opposite.

"I always had this question in my mind: what can I add to a brand that is famous for reduction?" he told Wallpaper*. The answers included a decorative ruffle down the side of trousers, a high slit in the back of a coat and, above all, skirts spliced "provocatively at the seams, providing glimpses of white stockinged thigh underneath", as Nicole Phelps put it on Vogue Runway. His starting point, she reported, was a question: "can something superfluous be considered essential?"

The stated reference was Café Lehmitz, the 1978 book in which Swedish photographer Anders Petersen captured the regulars of a Hamburg bar in the 1960s. "What I like [about Petersen's photos] is this bit of roughness and this bit of imperfection," Bellotti told Miles Socha of WWD. That explains the white stocking. It is not a romantic accessory but an opaque, almost clinical surface that appears exactly where you expect skin. Sensuality kept on a short leash. Phelps ended her review on the point: "A sexy Jil Sander? You better believe it."

The leg was thought through across the collection. Coveteur spotted grey tights under flesh-toned leather coats, and cobalt-blue socks cutting through brown, grey and black looks. Footwear was its own chapter: Vogue singled out "pre-dirtied tan suede cowboy-ish boots", stretchy scuba shoes and "Hitchcock pumps", spliced at the back like many of the clothes.

Who is Simone Bellotti?

Born in 1978 in Giussano and raised in Milan, Bellotti started out in 2001 as a design assistant at A.F. Vandevorst in Antwerp before moving through Gianfranco Ferré, Bottega Veneta and Dolce & Gabbana. He then spent almost sixteen years at Gucci and, from 2023, led design at Bally, as FashionUnited recounts. According to Vogue, he "made a fast success of his time at Bally with his footwear", which is why his pumps deserve as much attention as his coats.

Nor did the legwear come out of nowhere. At his September 2025 debut, FashionNetwork noted, leather jackets were already paired with leggings. By February the covered leg had become the main argument.

The stirrup: from the saddle to aerobics to Demna

The stirrup legging has a long history, and it did not start in fashion. The strap under the foot kept riding breeches in place inside boots; in the 1920s, as women abandoned side-saddle, they adopted breeches much like men's. Stirrup trousers for skiing appeared at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Germany and became standard on the slopes in the 1960s and 70s. From the mid-1980s to the late 1990s the stirrup went mainstream as casual wear, all oversized jumpers and aerobics.

Its runway return has a name: Demna. For his second Balenciaga collection, in autumn 2016, he introduced "pantashoes", a skin-tight spandex trouser with a pointed pump fixed to the bottom. As i-D pointed out, the idea had distinguished ancestors: the 1963 stocking boots Roger Vivier made for Yves Saint Laurent, and the 1971 "Pan-T-Boot", described as "a girdle, stretch pants, hosiery, and shoes all rolled into one".

Seen this way, Bellotti's look is a pantashoe taken apart. Legging and court shoe are two pieces again, but the line runs unbroken from waist to toe.

From Tod's to Gucci: how a trend is made

One show makes an image; three make a trend. In her Milan round-up for Style Arcade, Anna-Louise McDougall wrote that "tights, stirrups, leggings, and pantyhose of all lengths caught the keen eyes of buyers and editors, especially at Jil Sander", where stirrup leggings "fit snugly into patent pumps – a look that was replicated at Tod's and Gucci."

At Tod's, Matteo Tamburini balanced cape-like coats and spongy knits with "a tailored stirrup legging split at the hem", according to The Impression. At Gucci, Demna's first show for the house was body-conscious throughout: super-skinny leggings, tracksuits turned into dresses and, in The Impression's words, "the legging-cum-trouser", one of his favoured tropes, finding "a new home". Vogue described "precipitously high stiletto pumps". That the inventor of the pantashoe is now bringing the sheathed leg back to Milan closes the circle neatly.

It is not just Milan, either. In Copenhagen in late January, Vogue Scandinavia had already counted stirrup leggings at Herskind, Paolina Russo and Gestuz. And Milan had its other face too: coloured tights at GCDS, Diesel and Moschino, in what McDougall called a "fun and alluring mood".

White legs, from Mary Quant to now

White hosiery carries baggage: first communions, nurses' uniforms, ballet class. But it also has an avant-garde past. The V&A notes that Mary Quant "is recognised as the first designer to commercialise tights, which were an entirely new product in the fashion industry at the time", created to go with her miniskirts, since even extra-long stockings could not hide their tops. She had theatrical costume suppliers make opaque tights in the same colours as her dresses. In 1965 André Courrèges designed his pure-white leather ankle boots, widely copied by the mass market. White on the leg meant modernity.

Bellotti moves it into a more grown-up register: not with a mini, but under a long skirt that opens.

How to wear it without looking like a uniform

• Choose a dense, matte white. As a rule, the higher the denier, the more opaque the tight. A smooth white with no sheen is closer to the runway than a sheer that lets skin show.
• Reveal it, don't parade it. Slits, wrap skirts and long open coats work better than a mini: the stocking should be a discovery.
• Keep everything else quiet. Clean tailoring, neutrals, minimal accessories. If optic white feels too stark, ivory or cream softens it.
• Check the stirrup length. Too short and the strap drags under the foot and distorts the line; too long and it wrinkles at the ankle. Try it with the shoes you will actually wear.
• The shoe decides everything. A low-cut court is the Jil Sander pairing; a ballet flat or loafer works if the strap stays hidden.
• Look after the white. Wash white hosiery apart from colours, by hand or in a mesh bag, so it stays white for longer.

A black stirrup under a long coat is the easiest part to take to the office. The white stocking takes more nerve, but after this season it has a new argument on its side: at Jil Sander it was a way to show less and make people look more.