In 1958 a company called Danskin introduced nylon body wear to dance. Taffy’s, my mother’s dancewear business, was the first to carry the products in a mail order catalog. The comfortable and form fitting tights quickly crossed over to fashion and I was the first Danskin tights model. Here is a picture of me in an ad for back to school legwear fashion.
Susan in the first Danskin ad 1958
This was not the first time dance fashions became street wear, and certainly not the last. Recently there was a terrific exhibit at FIT called Dance & Fashion Exhibit at Museum at FIT . The exhibit highlighted not only how dance has influenced fashion, but how fashion has influenced dance.
And it is even more exemplified when you see hip-hop fashion taking to the runways of Fashion Week and then celebrated in videos for Rag & Bone, featuring dancer extraordinaire, Baryshnikov.
Can’t wait to see what ends up on the fashion pages next, we’ve already seen tutus, jazz shoes, satin slippers, ballet flats, bodysuits, cat suits, unitards, what’s left?
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