Nylons Under Pants

On Quirks That Are Pleasant

I started noticing it after moving to Switzerland.

Back home in Mexico, wearing pantyhose under pants wasn’t really a thing. At least not in any obvious way. Nylons were for formal events, school uniforms, or maybe older women who still dressed a certain way. But under trousers? Never.

Then I got here and started seeing it everywhere. On trams, in offices, in cafés, women wearing nylon socks or tights under pants. At first it felt like a quiet fashion quirk. But the more I paid attention, the more I got hooked on how specific and intentional it looked.

There’s something elegant about it. The tiny space between the hem of a trouser and the shoe becomes a kind of stage. If you’re wearing nothing or just regular socks, it can look incomplete, kind of awkward. But with nylon, everything lines up. The texture is smoother. The light behaves differently. It feels… finished.

I started asking about it in the nylon interviews I’ve been doing. One model told me that especially in professional environments, like retail or sales, nylons are almost mandatory. There's that little gap, and without them it just looks weird. Socks make it casual. Nothing makes it messy. Nylons fix it:

Other women mentioned different reasons. Some said they preferred them over thermal tights in winter: thinner, more convenient. One mentioned they felt sexier if they were going on a date. “If we end up undressing, at least nylons look better than thermals,” she said. I totally get that.

So 2 years ago I worked on a photo series inspired by that detail. Nylons under pants. Something about it feels very European to me, very structured but still sensual. I'm thinking of approaching it with a more editorial or surreal angle in the near future. A bit dark, a bit nostalgic. I’m still sketching things out.

Probably makes more sense to shoot it when it cools down again — maybe late September or early October.

In any case, it’s a small thing. But small things are where everything starts for me.

Let me know in the comments if you’d be interested to see some “B Takes” of chances I’ve got to document this in my home country, Mexico and of course, if it would be interesting for you to make the part on film that I made of this project.

Till next time.

Arnos, The Count Obscura