Men and Stockings

Stockings are another clothing material that switched genders. Men have been wearing them since the 9th century. Men of the upper class generally wore white or colored stockings while poorer men only wore black.

They are exclusively worn by women these days. Women started wearing stockings in the 18th century. For the unaware, stockings (also called hose) are those close-fitting clothes that cover the feet and part of the legs. A variant of it is the pantyhose, which is a combination of stockings with panties. Men never wore pantyhose. To avoid confusion, stockings, pantyhose, tights, and breeches all belong to a category of clothes called hosiery.

Things slowly changed between the 16th and 20th centuries when stockings switched from being a masculine item to feminine. The period is even called the “The Dark Ages of Tights” for this reason. By the 19th century, stockings had become so closely associated with women that men stopped wearing them completely.