How Fishnets Have Been Worn Over 7 Decades

There are very few items of clothing that can make you look like a punk, a pin-up, a pop star, a burlesque dancer or a woman popping out for cocktails, depending entirely on what you wear with them.

Fishnet stockings and tights can.

For something made mostly of holes, they’ve had an impressively solid career.

Over the past 70 years, fishnet tights and stockings have moved from pin-ups, smoky clubs and punk venues to MTV, fashion runways, tennis courts and red carpets. They’ve been ripped deliberately, tucked into boots, clipped to suspender belts, worn beneath tiny shorts and even stretched into full-body catsuits.

And somehow, they still have the ability to make an outfit feel just a little bit naughty.

So how did a humble piece of hosiery become one of fashion’s great survivors?

Available from around the early 1900’s, fishnet stockings did not really become ‘socially acceptable’ until the 60’s. Although very popular with prostitutes, strippers, burlesque dancers, showgirls, pin-up imagery & certain movie stars such as Barbara Nichols, Marylin Monroe (who wore fishnet stockings in promotional images for Bus Stop in 1956), Bettie Page & Tempest Storm (famous for her burlesque films) in the 1950’s, they were still associated with fetishism and the average girl/woman rarely wore them, probably for fear of being branded as ‘cheap’.

In other words, they were considered rather ‘suggestive’.

In the same decade, it also became popular to sing about hosiery with songs such as Frankie Avalon’s ‘Bobby Sox to Stockings’, Eddie Cochran’s ‘Stockings & Shoes’, ‘Dance with a Dolly with a Hole in her Stockings’ by the fabulous Bill Hayley (originally recorded by the Andrews Sisters), Joe Bennett’s ‘Penny Loafers and Bobby Sox’ or Black Jack Wayne’s ‘Red Silk Stockings And The Green Perfume’ being listened to in coffee bars and at dances by teenagers in both the States and the UK. Hosiery hasn’t exactly been a hot topic to sing about since then, apart from The Stray Cats ‘Fishnet Stockings‘ in 1981.

Fishnets in the ’70s

In 1973, the cult play The Rocky Horror Show gave fishnets another immortal pop-culture moment. Tim Curry’s Dr Frank-N-Furter combined fishnet tights with corsetry, heels and swagger, turning the look into a celebration of theatrical sexuality and gender-bending glamour. I was lucky enough to catch this brilliant show in its early days in the Kings Road. Before the performance began, it opened by dimming the lights and letting loose ‘ushers’ and ‘phantoms’ who moved amongst the audience – totally unexpected and a little creepy.

This show ‘reinvented’ fishnets and they were seen worn in clubs, discos and on the London gay scene.

The Punks: Following this, we had the anti-establishment Punk Rockers who wore tights, tops, dresses, gloves or skirts in fishnet and favoured some of the early Vivienne Westwood designs which could be bought in ‘World Turned Upside Down’ / ‘Let it Rock’ / ‘Sex’, the shop owned by Malcolm McLaren.

Run by one of the era’s unforgettable figures Jordan, (Pamela Rooke), with her combination of peroxide hair, theatrical make-up, leotards and fishnet stockings became part of the visual language of British punk.

London clubs such as The Roxy (formerly Chaguaramas) in Covent Garden where live bands performed, or more ‘select’ clubs where only members or those ‘who looked right’ were admitted such as Louise’s in Poland St,W1 or Sombrero in Kensington although primarily gay clubs, became very popular with the early punk bands and their black fishnet and leather clad followers. During these times, black tights or stockings was generally the only colour available and they were laddered, torn, worn with leather, safety pins or bondage-inspired clothing.

The Teds: In the mid seventies there was also a huge teddy boy / rockers revival, another genre where the women also wore fishnet tights and stockings. This revival coming in at the same time as the Punks led to many clashes between the two genres in the Kings Road, Chelsea, and on Bank Holidays at resorts such as Margate, Brighton and Southend. At this time the older ‘original’ teds were still around and joined by us, the younger generation. Big names from 50’s Rock ‘n’ Roll & Rockabilly were still performing, and we werelucky enough to see artists like Mac Curtis, Ray Campi, Fats Domino and many more stars at Weekenders or the early Rockers Reunions, and Bill Haley & The Comets in ’79 at Woolwich Odeon.

Following this in the early 80’s a new scene emerged and we had the Goths, a spin-off from the punk era who adopted either a Victorian style of dress or the fishnet and leather of their predecessors but always in black.

The 1980s: Madonna Makes Them Pop

Then came Madonna and fishnets once again went global.

When Madonna’s career exploded in the early 1980s, her wardrobe mixed lace, lingerie, crosses, stacked bracelets, bows, bustiers, ankle boots and fishnet hosiery into one deliciously chaotic package. Vogue has described her pop songs and fishnet stockings as staples of the decade.

Madonna understood something extremely powerful about underwear and hosiery. Instead of treating them as things that should quietly disappear beneath clothes, she made them the clothes.

Fishnet tights worked beautifully in this new world because they showed skin while technically covering it.

Clever little things.

In Desperately Seeking Susan , Madonna’s layered, thrifted, downtown look helped turn messy glamour into something millions of young women wanted to copy. Decades later, Juliette Lewis would specifically describe wearing fishnets on screen as her own homage to Madonna in the film.

During this period, there was also a growing divide in how fishnets could be worn.

Fishnet stockings, held up with suspenders or garters, retained more of their lingerie, cabaret and boudoir associations.

Fishnet tights, covering the body from waist to toe, could travel more easily into street fashion.

That made tights particularly useful to musicians and club kids. Wear them intact and they were sexy. Tear them and they became punk. Add heels and they turned glamorous. Add Doc Martens and suddenly they looked like they had opinions.

The 1990s: Rip Them to Pieces

The polished excess of the 1980s couldn’t last forever.

By the early 1990s, grunge had arrived and fashion began looking as though it had slept in its make-up. This was excellent news for fishnets.

Courtney Love became one of the decade’s defining wearers. Her look mixed delicate slip dresses, babydoll silhouettes and tiaras with heavy shoes, smeared lipstick and ripped fishnet tights.

Vogue describes Love’s regular rotation of slip dresses, torn fishnets and Mary Janes as part of the “broken glamour” that became so closely associated with her style.

The contrast was the whole point.

Pretty dress.

Ruined tights.

Sweet little shoes.

Possibly complete chaos by midnight.

Fishnets in the 1990s didn’t have to look pristine. In fact, pristine could almost spoil the effect. A small hole became a ladder. A ladder became a large hole. A large hole became, apparently, fashion.

This was also the decade when goth and alternative dressing became increasingly visible outside small underground scenes. Fishnets appeared under ripped denim, plaid skirts, velvet dresses and big boots.

The stocking version remained firmly connected to lingerie and nightlife, but fishnet tights became much more democratic.

You no longer had to look like you were about to perform a cabaret number. You could simply look like you knew where the good clubs were.

The 2000s: Fishnets Meet Maximum Exposure

If the 1990s had tried to look as though it didn’t care, the 2000s cared enormously.

Low-rise jeans. Tiny tops. Visible underwear. Metallic fabrics. Rhinestones. Chaps.

Subtlety took a little holiday and fishnets fitted straight in.

Early-2000s pop performers used them as stagewear because they offered texture, sex appeal and movement without visually covering the leg.

Christina Aguilera was one of the period’s great fashion provocateurs, combining boots, tiny bottoms, embellished pieces and fishnet hosiery during an era when her style became increasingly rebellious and overtly sexual. Contemporary retrospectives of her early-2000s wardrobe still pick out combinations such as knee-high gold boots worn with fishnet stockings.

At the same time, another movement was taking fishnet stockings in a completely different direction.

The modern burlesque revival brought back old-school glamour, and performers such as Dita Von Teese turned stockings, suspender belts, corsets and meticulously styled lingerie into an entire aesthetic.

The effect was almost the opposite of grunge.

Courtney Love’s fishnets looked better after a fight.

Dita’s looked as though they had an appointment.

Von Teese became one of the leading figures in bringing burlesque back into mainstream fashion conversation, mixing vintage references with elaborate designer costumes and highly controlled glamour.

This gave fishnet stockings another identity.

Not punk.

Not scruffy.

Not accidental.

Very deliberate.

The 2010s: Fishnets Escape the Nightclub

Something interesting happened to fishnets during the 2010s.

They became almost normal.

Almost.

Fashion started playing with scale and placement. Instead of only traditional black fishnet tights, there were oversized nets, tiny nets, coloured nets, ankle socks, knee-highs and fishnets peeking above waistbands.

By 2015, Vogue was noting fishnet socks appearing alongside rolled jeans, trainers and heels. A piece of hosiery once strongly associated with nightlife was suddenly being suggested as a playful everyday accessory.

Then 2016 happened.

Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad brought ripped fishnet tights crashing back into mainstream pop culture. Harley’s outfit, with its tiny shorts, ripped T-shirt, boots and fishnets, quickly became one of the character’s defining visual signatures.

At roughly the same time, fishnets were all over street style during fashion month, worn beneath denim shorts, dresses and statement pieces. Vogue noted their presence in New York, Milan and Paris.

Then came one of the more unexpected fishnet moments in recent memory.

Serena Williams wore fishnet tights on a tennis court.

During the 2018 US Open, Williams paired an Off-White x Nike tutu dress with fishnet tights, creating a look that managed to be athletic, elegant and rebellious all at once.

Think about that journey for a moment.

Cabaret.

Punk club.

Madonna video.

Grunge gig.

Tennis court.

Fishnets had officially developed range.

The 2020s: Anything Goes

By the 2020s, fishnets no longer belonged to one particular tribe.

Dua Lipa has paired fishnet stockings with oversized outerwear, creating precisely the kind of high-low contrast modern fashion loves. Vogue even documented her wearing fishnets beneath a huge winter puffer in London.

Cher, who has spent decades cheerfully refusing to dress according to anybody else’s expectations, wore fishnet leggings with a dramatic leather Chrome Hearts dress to the 2022 CFDA Awards.

Rihanna has taken the idea even further. In 2024 she stepped out in Balenciaga fishnet pantaboots, effectively merging hosiery, trousers and footwear into one gloriously impractical-looking fashion object.

And in 2025, Charlize Theron appeared at The Old Guard 2 premiere in a fishnet Givenchy catsuit layered over black lingerie and topped with a blazer.

Which rather proves where we’ve ended up.

The fishnet is no longer an accessory that has to sit politely on the leg, they can become the entire outfit.

For seven decades they’ve slipped between underground subcultures and mainstream fashion, constantly borrowing a new identity before anyone gets bored.

And perhaps that is the secret.

Fishnets have never really belonged to one type of woman, one kind of body or one particular scene – every generation seems to find its own reason to get caught in the net.

Seventy years on, those little diamond-shaped holes are still doing an awful lot of work.


Writing this has turned into a trip down memory lane for me rather than a straightforward article about fishnets :) It’s made me realise that I have been wearing them as I’ve moved from one genre to another throughout my adult life.