A little wonder, every day

Stocking pads for calves

modern educational drawing of eighteenth-century knee breeches; artist David Ring for Europeana Fashion, held at MoMu Fashion Museum Antwerp. Original: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Breeches.jpg. CC0 1.0: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Attribution appreciated: David Ring / Europeana Fashion / MoMu. Unmodified.

fashion plate showing a man in breeches and stockings, c. 1795, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, accession 1952-127-15. Artist unknown. Original: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fashion_Plate_for_Man%27s_Costume_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg. Public Domain Mark 1.0: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/. Attribution: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Unmodified.

1 / 2

modern educational drawing of eighteenth-century knee breeches; artist David Ring for Europeana Fashion, held at MoMu Fashion Museum Antwerp. Original: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Breeches.jpg. CC0 1.0: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Attribution appreciated: David Ring / Europeana Fashion / MoMu. Unmodified.

Listen to fact0:00 / —

In the 1770s, some men put pads inside their stockings to make their calves look more pronounced. It was a fashion trick: the shape of the legs was part of the era’s ideal style.