Tap Your Troubles Away

Last week my teen and I were browsing through a new boutique when we had a markedly different reaction to a piece we found on the dress rail: it was a pair of midnight silk tap pants edged in mossy-brown lace.

I swooned and my teen sneered till I told her about the garment's heritage--these little shorts were named for the tap dancers who would practice in them.

As my daughter's a tapper (shameless namedropping: she had a dance class with the Rockettes this summer as a birthday gift), her grim look softened, but not enough that I could purchase the tap pants for her.

I, however, LOVE the look of tap pants and remember when, in my twenties, I went to a chic little lingerie boutique in Montreal and bought a few sets pour moi. 

Now, alas, clothing styles are engineered more for Spanx than a lacy shot of fluttery silk, but I'll bet that these tap pants would still be perfect underneath an A-line skirt, or over a pair of tights, worn with the right sweater and heels.

Or in the summer, on their own, with a smile and a pair of tap shoes, a la Gilda Radner in this routine from The Muppet Show.  As the curtain opens, Ms. Radner is stuck to Beaker via glue from a lab experiment gone awry.