Bad Ideas in Fashion: J. Crew’s Hairy Leg Tights

Via Gawker:

Preppy clothing enthusiasts recoiled today when J. Crew put a model with hippie-hairy legs on its website. Has J. Crew found its “inner feminist”? Is a disgruntled web designer playing pranks? We reveal the startling truth…

None of the above: Turns out these tights replicate the exact texture and appearance of super-hairy legs. These will either become J. Crew’s poorest-selling item, or best-selling—Halloween is coming, after all. Maybe they could market it as a sexy Chewbacca accessory?

In all fairness, the zoom on these tights reveals what nature and the design minds of J Crew intended - your standard run-of-the-mill lace pattern, and not some sort of hippie chic look. It appears that the choice of the “fawn” color on the models was particularly unfortunate in adding to the hairy legged illusion

Clearly the public ridicule has reached corporate’s ears, because not only have the lifestyle tights shots been pulled from main pages, but the gallery view has been changed to a more discreet, more obviously lacy image of the tights in their packaging.

It was good for a temporary, schadenfreude-laced giggle, though.

Image credit: Gawker