* John Galliano look, photo from STYLE.com

Fall continues to emphasize its previous season’s legacy: that quintessential body part, the leg. Designers sent a new seductive and strong woman, a Woman Warrior staking her claim, marching down the runways. These women were layered head-to-toe, stomping across the runway in black, heavy, platform boots and booties.

Whatever else these women were wearing, all eyes were drawn to the leg. Whether bare under a short shirt or encased in leggings and tights, the leg stole the show. With Fall’s plethora of voluminous tops and coats, its pencil silhouette ruled the runway. It complimented all of the deconstructed and oversize shapes designed for the torso and polished the look.

This Fall’s dominant trends include sweater dressing, the tailored suit, the micro minis and short trapeze dresses, the new oversize silhouettes for coats and sweater jackets, and most importantly, layering. The leg is the common ties them all together- it makes an extreme statement, it’s the exclamation point to any fashionista’s outfit.

Leggings were a huge trend for Spring and Summer. Alongside the layered look, champion of current trends, it is the next step for this leg trend to keep on moving. The leg therefore becomes not only the focus for the dresser, but it also seduces the onlooking admirer. It is the latest erogenous zone.

The fashion designers direct the eye with higher hemlines, but also with the plethora of tights, leggings, fishnets, hoes, ankle socks, and leg warmers. In addition to the hosiery and leg wear, the massive black, platform bootys and the shocking metallic patent platform pumps and boots simply added another reason to watch out for the leg. Director of FIT, Valerie Steele, duly noted “like a high-heeled shoe, there is a sense of eroticism packed into a skirt.”

As fashions change, the designers re-invent their approach to areas of a woman’s body and find new ways to flatter, conceal, or reveal. James Laver, famous fashion historian and designer, spelled it out when he said, “The erogenous zone is always shifting and it is the business of fashion to pursue it, without ever catching up.”

According to Laver, fashion cultivates and maintains an interest in the body by concealing certain parts of the body and exposing others to create “erotic capital- the thrill of seeing certain parts of the body.” As early as the Renaissance, designers followed this principle by focusing on the bosom with corsetry and bustier. And only a few years later, designers switched their focus farther down to the hips and derrière to fit into the hourglass silhouette.

Skipping ahead to the more recent “Quant-Sixties,” the Swinging-Mary erogenous zone was the leg. In the Seventies, the belly was the hot spot. The leg came back in the Rockin’ Eighties, but the Nineties saw a return to the breast as the center of attention. In our decade up until this year, the the belly was back, many thanks to mid-drift shirts, low-rise hip huggers, and Britney Spears’ infamous navel.

But the zeitgeist of Fall 2006 is, without a doubt, the leg. As researcher Linda Dyett noted, “When strategically surrounded by clothing, body parts function like traffic lights, stopping and starting points that directs the eye to a further destination.” In this case, a woman’s completed look depends on the leg, be it bare or covered.

As designer Mary Quant remarked, “A woman is as young as her knees.” We’d better show off while we still can!
-Sarah Perpich