Leotard

A leotard is a unisex skin-tight legless one-piece garment that covers the torso from the crotch to the shoulder. The garment was made famous by the French acrobatic performer Jules Léotard (1838–1870) and is named after him.

A female ballet dancer in a sleeveless leotard and tights.

A female acrobatic gymnast in a long-sleeved leotard.

There are sleeveless, short-sleeved, and long-sleeved leotards. Leotards are designed as sports and dance wear, and are commonly worn by both male and female dancers (particularly for ballet) and gymnasts. Leotards are also worn in stage show performances, e.g. by singers, and in cosplay.

Related garments

A leotard has much in common to a bodysuit, but bodysuits are generally worn as an undergarment and bodysuits for adults are generally a female garment. Leotards also have much in common with one-piece swimsuits, but they are not made for swimming.

A unitard is like a leotard but also covers the legs.

Characteristics

Leotards are usually entered through the neck. Scoop-necked leotards have wide neck openings and are held in place by the elasticity of the garment. Others are crew necked or polo necked and close at the back of the neck with a zipper or snaps.

A leotard's bottom can be cut in different styles, just like in underwear and swimwear. Whenever leotards are combined with tights, thong cuts are usually preferred because the lines created by the garment underneath the tights may be considered unsightly. It is also possible to wear a leotard over tights, or another tight-fitting garment such as leggings or cycling shorts, instead of under them.

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  A man wearing a white sleeveless leotard (thong cut), rear view.

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  The same, front view.

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  A thong cut (here particularly high) exposes almost all of the buttocks.

Trivia

The spanking video The Dancer, aka Turquoise Leotard (by Spank My Bottom) features a dancer in a turquoise unitard, not a leotard.

See also

• Leotard on Wikipedia

Links

• Category:Leotards on Wikimedia Commons

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Leotard. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Spanking Art, the text of Wikipedia is available under a copyleft license, the Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike license.