Attending Copenhagen Fashion week, senior beauty editor Josefin Forsberg stepped outside of her sartorial comfort zone taking the trendy stirrup leggings on a ride. Below, she breaks down why you should too (especially if you’re of the leg-conscious kind)
Getting dressed in sub-zero temperatures is no easy feat. Woollen long johns are non-negotiable. As is natural fibre knitwear. But this season, there was a new layering hero doing most of the leg-warming legwork: the stirrup legging.
The foot-hugging fixture has been bubbling under the surface for a while now, cropping up on catwalks across Europe over the past year. But at Copenhagen Fashion Week AW26, the equestrian-adjacent design galloped straight into our wardrobes. Why? They were everywhere. So much so that by the end of the week, I found myself slipping into a pair.
Some background: My calves once went viral on TikTok due to their sheer muscle mass. A ridiculous claim to 15 minutes of fame, but as such, I find myself in a unique position to test-drive the stirrup legging considering it is the kind of piece people like me usually steer clear of. Figure-hugging, calf-enhancing to Tudorian levels (Henry VIII wore faux calves, after all. Calves were the Skims nipple bras of their era).
Herskind AW26. Photo: James Cochrane
Paolina Russo AW26. Photo: S
Gestuz AW26. Photo: James Cochrane