Tights Under Shorts

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

If Modesty Shorts involves a character wearing a skirt over shorts, then Tights Under Shorts involves a character wearing, well, tights under shorts. This is a great way to avoid too much fanservice with even the shorter shorts (including hot pants), though not as popular or traditional as Modesty Shorts, Skirt Over Slacks, or Proper Tights with a Skirt. If flesh-colored tights are used, especially where censorship rules don't allow bare legs (as was most notoriously the case with The Dukes of Hazzard), then it can be used as a method of Getting Crap Past the Radar.

Don't expect the shorts in question to be Modesty Shorts except on extremely rare occasions.

Examples of Tights Under Shorts include:

Anime and Manga

  • Konata wears black tights under her olive green shorts with one of her casual outfits in Lucky Star, particularly on the cover of volume 1 of the manga, as well as in several strips in the manga itself.
  • Ritsu wore blue pantyhose under her shorts in one of the ending sequences of K-On!.
  • Kurisu Makise in Steins;Gate.

Comic Books

  • Worn by Ramona in Scott Pilgrim, who often has the tights be bright colors.

Fan Works

  • Haruhi Suzumiya wears jean shorts over red tights with one of her casual outfits in SOS Pretty Cure.

Film

  • Part of Penny's costume from Bolt when she's filming the eponymous TV series about a girl and her superdog (as seen in the page image).
  • Olivia Castle wears fishnet tights with black leather shorts during the opening disaster scene in Final Destination 5.

Live-Action TV

  • Daisy Duke wore this in the TV incarnation of The Dukes of Hazzard due to TV censorship rules concerning showing too much skin on female legs. To get around these rules without making this trope too obvious, Catherine Bach wore flesh-colored tights under the jean shorts her character famously and frequently wore.
  • On Shake It Up, Bella Thorne and Zendaya usually wore this.
  • Burt Ward as Robin in the 1960s Batman series is a rare male example.

Video Games

  • Mira from the Pokémon Diamond and Pearl generation of video games.
  • Mao from Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice is a rare male example.
  • Chaos from Xenosaga does this as well.
  • Another male example, Ash Crimson from The King of Fighters in his alternate costume's first color in Maximum Impact: Regulation A, as well as in one other palette swap.
  • Invoked by most incarnations of [[ Mega Man and his supporting cast, as most robot characters' legs are painted a different color from their pelvic components. Mega Man Legends' Roll is a straight example, but her tights are only slightly longer than her iconic short shorts.

Web Comics

  • Homestuck. Equius Zahhak usually dresses like this. Fanservice was probably not the intended effect.

Western Animation

  • Jane from Daria normally wears this.

Real Life

  • A popular choice for soccer players to keep their legs warm in cold weather, as well as for muscular support.
  • Curiously, done with the "Hooters Girls" outfits, in the manner of Daisy Duke.
  • Some cosplayers will add dance tights if the costume involves short-shorts. This is to help even skin tone and hide cellulite.