Painted knees and rolled down stockings

Flappers, as fashion-forward young women of the Roaring Twenties were called, were very bold in their style choices. We have a separate post about them. Not all radical fashionistas of the 1920s chose to rouge or paint their knees and roll down their stockings, but this trend was widely written about in newspapers and even mentioned in popular songs.

“Roll ’em girls, roll ’em girls,
Go ahead and roll ’em,
Roll ’em down and show your pretty knees.
Roll ’em girls, roll ’em, everybody roll ’em,
Roll ’em high or low, just as you please.
Don’t let people tell you that it’s shocking —
Paint your sweetie’s picture
On your stocking…”
— Billy Murray, 1925

A silent film starring Louise Brooks was even named after this phenomenon: “Rolled Stockings” (1927).

In the 1920s, girls often abandoned stocking garters and rolled their stockings down to draw attention to their knees. Rolled-down stockings were especially popular in beachwear, at swimming pools, and with sports outfits. There were even special garters designed specifically for rolled stockings. Going completely without stockings, however, was still considered improper. Around the same time, another trend emerged — painting the entire leg to make it look as if a stocking were being worn.

Dress hemlines were still too long to reveal the tops of the legs, but the popular dances of the era — from the Charleston to the Foxtrot — exposed blushed or decorated knees, drawing even more attention to them.

The fashion for painted knees was forgotten until the 1960s, when miniskirts came into vogue and leg adornment once again became popular.