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In the stretch: leotards have a long way from baggy black cotton to sleek and chic. A look at new--and old--and the shape of things to come.

Article Excerpt
Houston Ballet principal Sara Webb has 150. San Francisco Ballet soloist Elizabeth Miner says she's got too many to count. Fellow company member Pauli Magierek owns at least 60. And Houston corps de ballet member Jaquel Charlesworth says, "I'm kind of obsessed, before mentioning that she owns 200.

Everyone likes to have options when it comes to leotards. Some make you look good when you feel fat, some come in bright colors that cheer you up, others in comfortable fabrics that you can wear in long rehearsals. By now there's a leotard for every mood, body-type, and taste. The black cap-sleeved Capezio model that set a standard in the 1940s has come a long way.

Once, the leotard was a rarity. Invented by the flamboyant Parisian acrobat Jules Leotard in the mid-19th century, the full-length body sock was largely ignored by dancers and only appeared occasionally onstage--think Nijinsky in Spectre de la rose. The leotard owes much of its popularity to chemists at DuPont Chemical. Before the development of...

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