The Not-So Ubiquitous Legging

I am a dirty hypocrite. I was never a "leggings as pants" person. Leggings are NOT pants. The closest thing in existence are yoga pants. Which are still, in my opinion, not REAL pants. But here I am, wearing black leggings with an Edie Sedgwick print from Warhol's screen tests. When one thinks of Edie, tights and a leotard come to mind, but seeing that I am NOT Edie Sedgwick--nor am I Sienna Miller who happened to think she was, apparently--I chose leggings as a happy compromise. Paired with black ballet flats too, of course.

Now, I'm prepared to take the leggings one step further. Instead of entering a (pretty much) leggings-only-ALL-THE-TIME-like-every-day phase, a la Lindsay Lohan, I'm thinking about getting the ever-so popular American Apparel lame version (actually, I think she has them too... hmm). 

Ironically, black leggings have been anathema to the fashion world (aka, people older than 23) for literally years now, but the tackier version of plain ol' leggings--and I don't necessarily mean "tacky" in a bad way, of course, because tackiness is what makes life interesting, after all--have been popping up in magazines for a while... See the "Press Alert" for the American Apparel version.

Despite the rave reviews, I have never seen anyone wearing this type of leggings aside for Lohan and Susie Bubble in a non-AA PVC version. Until today, that is--Topshop's Fall 2008 show displayed many a model in PVC pants. Hmm. Are tight, shiny-ish pants about to cross over from quirky/saucy/tacky category into simply a more fashion-forward version of regular bottoms?