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Proper Tights with a Skirt
aka: Tights With A Skirt Is Proper

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Comfortable, flattering and won't run even after a long day of fighting monsters.

So, you have a female character, and you want her to appear prim and proper and feminine. It wouldn't usually (with few exceptions) give off the vibe you want for her to wear pants, and it would be difficult to have her fit in full dresses when all of your other female characters are wearing mini skirts.

The solution is simple — have her wear dark, opaque tights with a skirt. It's a great way to communicate her kind of personality.

This style of dress is particularly common in Anime with the Ojou and Yamato Nadeshiko. Compare with Modesty Shorts, which prevents Panty Shots for the Action Girl who wears a microskirt in action scenes. Contrasts with Zettai Ryouiki, which are usually employed to instead enhance the fanservice of the outfit, highlighting budding sexuality.

Note that when it comes to children, and especially school uniforms (except where School Uniforms are the New Black), this is so standard that no examples need to be given.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime and Manga 
  • Tomoe Tachibana from Absolute Duo wears black tights with her school uniform, making her look more elegant compared to the other girls. Also, she's polite, friendly, and very helpful, especially towards her partner Miyabi.
  • Yukiko Kanzaki from Assassination Classroom wears black tights with her school uniform, has the title of class idol, comes from a traditional family, and she is one of the nicest characters of the series.
  • Sen Yarizui from Ben-To wears tights with her school uniform. In a setting where she has to fight for the titular object in a supermarket, at least she knows how to be modest.
  • Balalaika from Black Lagoon wears black tights with an impeccable red skirt suit at all times. However, given Balalaika's age, occupation, and attitude, "professional" is probably a better description than "proper".
  • Date A Live: Kurumi has tights with her school uniform, but the properness she presents is only a façade.
  • Fran of Franken Fran wears a knee-length skirt with opaque black tights under her Mad Scientist white lab coat. This is partly to emphasise her modesty and lack of sexuality, while still being feminine.
  • Belarus from Hetalia: Axis Powers wears this whether she's in an Elegant Gothic Lolita outfit, in uniform garb or cosplaying as Alice in Hetaween 2011.
  • Utaha Kasumigaoka of How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend wears tights with most of her outfits, is the top student of her class, and doesn't get into trouble.
  • Henri Wakayama wears this with his Cure Infini costume in HuGtto! Pretty Cure. He's officially the first Cure to incorporate this into his costume.
  • Komi Can't Communicate: The titular protagonist is apparently the only girl in Itan High School who wears tights with her uniform, which fits with her image of being demure and collected. However, it's played with since despite appearances, Komi is actually a Nervous Wreck underneath who has difficulties to talk to people.
  • Umi from Magic Knight Rayearth as she's the Ojou and comes from a high-class school.
  • Haruko Amaya from Maken-ki! has this with her school uniform. She's the vice-president of Tenbi Academy's Student Council and is a Nice Girl.
  • Yui Hirasawa from K-On! for the most part.
  • Ochaco Uraraka from My Hero Academia wears gray tights with her school uniform, representing her properness and how nice she is. There is also practicality involved, as her Quirk of anti-gravity has her floating in mid-air quite often.
  • Homura Akemi wears this with her outfits, including her Magical Girl uniform (which, to top it off, adds high-heeled boots incorporated into the tights), in Puella Magi Madoka Magica, except in her flashbacks in episode 10. Mami Tomoe also wears this in her normal attire.
  • The Quintessential Quintuplets: Unlike her sisters who wear socks, Miku wears tights to go with her shy (yet sweet underneath) personality. Averted in one case when she takes them off because it is hot—without a thought of Fuutarou being inches away from her.
  • In She Becomes a Tree, both the main characters work Office Lady jobs, and wear pantyhose with their standard office attire- Kisaki wears white while Chishiro wears black. Kisaki's pantyhose also covers up her tree-like legs.
  • Shimoneta: Oboro wears a white pair of pantyhose beneath a full-length pleated skirt, in order to conceal the fact that he's crossdressing as a girl. It's part of his job as head of Tokioka Academy's 'Decency Prefects' and as Anna's bodyguard, because Anna's father groomed him to think and act as a female.
  • Akane Shinjo from SSSS.GRIDMAN wears tights with her school uniform. She may be the most popular girl in school, but her niceness is just a façade to hide her sociopathic tendencies.
  • Subverted in a sense by Strike Witches, since none of the girls wears a skirt...or pants, for that matter, but prim and proper Gallian noblewoman Perrine and Orussian moe Sanya wears tights.
  • Asuna Yuuki from Sword Art Online has this with all of her outfits in reality, including her school uniform. Of course, she comes from a traditional family and is a Nice Girl.
  • Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs: Angelica Rapha Redgrave wears tights in her Holfort Academy uniform (red in the light novel, black in the anime). She is the daughter of a duke, heiress to a noble house only below the royal family itself, thus fits the Ojou type (when her temper doesn't get the best of her).
  • Sayumi Takanashi from When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace wears tights with her school uniform, was a perfectionist in middle school, and comes from a well-off family.

    Comic Books 

    Films — Animated 
  • Jenny Foxworth from Oliver & Company wears periwinkle tights in her casual outfit. She may be a child, but she knows how to look proper.
  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: In the movie, at least, you can see the eponymous princess wearing flesh-colored tights under her outfits if you look closely enough. In any case, Snow White is the only Disney Princess to be depicted wearing this.
  • In Turning Red, Mei wears purple tights with a blue denim skirt likely chosen by her mother to maintain Mei's image as her perfect daughter.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • In Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Hermione dresses this way during the two instances in which she appears out of uniform. The first time is when they visit Hagrid's and witnesses Norbert's birth, during which time she's wearing a black skirt with black tights. The second time is during the film's climax, in which she wears a dark skirt with white tights. She never dresses this way again for the rest of the series, perhaps due to her mellowing out. From Prisoner of Azkaban onwards, she wears trousers when dressed casually.

    Literature 
  • Samantha (the Victorian Era... oops, The Edwardian Era girl) from the American Girl franchise wears this. She expresses dislike for it, especially as her grandmother insists on her wearing long underwear underneath them from September to June (in an attempt to prevent tuberculosis).
  • A newer American Girl character, Courtney (from The '80s) is introduced wearing hot pink tights under an acid-washed denim skirt.
  • In the first book of The Princess Diaries, Mia's grandmother informs her that she's too old to be wearing tights with her school uniform and should be wearing pantyhose instead. Mia still manages to screw this up by wearing the "wrong" kind, so her grandmother reluctantly lets her go back to the tights.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Community: This is a common outfit for Annie Edison in the first four seasons of the show, especially in early season 1, fitting her characterization as a prim and proper bookworm and The Ingenue. As she begins to transition into the role of Ms. Fanservice, the tights become less and less common until finally completely disappearing in Season 5 where she undergoes an outfit change, becoming more akin to a Lady in a Power Suit in an effort to portray herself as more mature.

    Music 
  • Lindsey Stirling is a devout Mormon, and has said in her autobiography that she has all her stage and video clothes specially designed to be "modest in a specific way". Bare arms are fine (though she rarely bares her shoulders), and even when wearing a short skirt she is almost always wearing something underneath (pantyhose, tights, yoga pants, jeans); there are a few pictures out there of her with bare legs, but not many. About the only time she goes bare-legged is in her "Carol of the Bells" video, where she wears a blue ballerina-ish leotard, and in that one she covers it up with a transparent gauzy skirt. She also never wears anything that reveals any more than the absolute barest hint of cleavage.

    Video Games 
  • Lilina from Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade has a nightgown-like costume, with tights underneath. After all, she's the daughter of a Lord.
  • In Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, Karis wears a mini-dress with tights, and for a rare male example (!) Rief wears what are either leggings or tights with his tunic (which didn't help the gender confusion any).
  • In MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies, Vert wears tights with her school uniform and she's the most outwardly refined character in the game.
  • Persona:
    • Yukiko Amagi from Persona 4 (pictured above) wears pantyhose with her school uniform. She comes from a very traditional family and tries to carry herself in an elegant manner.
    • Persona 5 has a twofer with Makoto Niijima and Haru Okumura. Makoto wears black leggings and is Shujin High's stern student council president, while Haru wears white, star-patterned tights in winter and is the refined heiress to one of Japan's biggest corporations.
    • The Original Generation character Hikari from Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth wears this in-game.
  • Pokémon:
    • Erika's Holiday 2020 outfit incorporates black tights, while she wears white tights with her Sygna Suit.
    • Roxanne's default outfit incorporates pink tights regardless of the generation.
    • Due to the various items of clothing available in Pokémon X and Y - and later Pokémon Sword and Shield (the Generation 7 games didn’t include tights) - you can dress your character this way if you so desire, if you’re playing as the female trainer.
  • Yurika Kirishima, the resident Ojou of Project Justice, wears white pantyhose with her dress.
    • The Pacific High School female uniform, which rich heiress Tiffany Lords wears as her alternate costume in Rival Schools: United By Fate, has dark hose with a miniskirt.
  • Resident Evil 2 (Remake): Ada's outfit is a cocktail dress with black pantyhose, giving her a mature and elegant look that shows she cares about her appearance, even in a Zombie Apocalypse.
  • Ikaruga, a third-year student at Hanzo National Academy who is the class president, from Senran Kagura wears tights in her ninja outfit.
  • Priestess Eris Anthule, the representative of the Havencraft faction in Shadowverse, wears a long one-piece dress slit all the way up to her thighs on both sides with opaque tights or leggings underneath to preserve her modesty.
  • Maria Traydor, the leader of Quark in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, wears dark skin-tight leggings in her main outfit.
  • Tales of the Abyss: Princess Natalia Luzu-Kimalsca Lanvaldear wears white tights under her short aquamarine dress when you first meet her.
  • Elly Van Houten from Xenogears wears brown tights under her Gebler uniform. She's a Nice Girl, in contrast with the other Gebler members.
  • Shion Uzuki from Xenosaga wears brown tights under her Vector Industries uniform. This goes to show you that she's an All-Loving Hero and a Nice Girl to boot. Her friend, MOMO, also qualifies with her main outfit in Episode III, and like Shion, she's a Nice Girl.
  • Dragon Quest IV: Tsarevna Alena is a nice, perky princess clad in dark-grey tights and a yellow tunic.
  • In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the artwork for Mythra's Spirit added black tights to her bare legs in order to meet Japan's CERO rating for the game, since her dress was dangerously short. This bit of censorship ended up actually liked enough - even called an improvement for some people - that the version of her outfit with the tights was added to her game. Likewise, she keeps them on as a playable character.
  • Mario Party: Princess Peach wore white tights under her trademark pink dress during the N64 era. Of course, it was only visible to the naked eye during her twirl animation under most circumstances—the best place to spot it in real time would be during the intro cutscene in 1. Her appearance in the Paper Mario series has Peach wearing white tights all the time, which can only be seen through certain animations or looking at a sprite sheet.

    Web Comics 
  • In Rain, the title character favors this while wearing her school uniform even though the other girls don't. This is partially due to her naturally shy personality and partially due to the fact that she's a transgender girl who wants to draw as little attention to what's under her skirt as possible. Also the author knows that this trope applies to her.
  • The magical girl webcomic Sleepless Domain combines and contrasts this trope with Zettai Ryouiki to signal the five main characters' defining personality traits. Cool Big Sis Sylvia, Tsundere Sally and Ojou Tessa wear Zettai Ryouiki grades A, B, and C respectively while Tomboy Gwen wears 3/4 height gym socks. Team peacemaker and Shrinking Violet Undine, on the other hand, is always depicted wearing Proper Tights With A Skirt, be it with her school uniform, her civilian clothes, or at Sylvia, Sally, and Gwen's funeral.

    Western Animation 
  • In The Legend of Korra, Asami Sato's standard non-combat outfit both pre- and post-Time Skip features a skirt with opaque tights — she's the resident nice dark-haired girl.
  • Daphne Blake's regular outfit from the various incarnations of Scooby-Doo is a purple mini-dress with pink tights. She comes from a very rich family.
  • Star's main outfit in Star vs. the Forces of Evil consists of a green dress with orange and purple tights.
  • Claire Nunez in Trollhunters wears purple tights in her main outfit. This goes to show you that she's a Nice Girl, despite surrounding herself with a Skeleton Motif.

Alternative Title(s): Tights With A Skirt, Tights With A Skirt Is Proper, It Is Proper To Wear Tights With A Skirt, Proper Tights With Skirt

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