From Concrete to the Catwalks: A Brief History of the Knee Pad

Coco Chanel really disliked knees, so much so that she made sure her skirts covered them. But that didn’t stop Karl Lagerfeld from accessorizing his thigh-high Chanel skirts with couture knee pads for his Spring 2014 Couture show for the house. To be fair, they do cover the offending joints. Gucci’s Alessandro Michele has revisited this soft armor, ensuring that you’ll have a soft landing into Fall 2019.

Knee pads, to start, were purely functional garments that offered protection to athletes. Umpires wear them, and they are built into the pants football players sport on the field. They hit the streets via the skateboarding craze of the 1970s and moved from concrete pools and skate parks to sidewalks and polished gym floors during the breakdancing boom of the 1980s.

Worn as performance gear by hip hop artists Salt-N-Pepa, they were also adopted by dance-happy pop stars like Madonna. Knee pads eventually made their way onto the catwalk, and considering the often teetering shoes the models wear, their appearance there wasn’t such a bad idea. At Chanel, Lagerfeld gave them a lady-like spin and paired them with sneakers; Rick Owens has worked knee pads into his strident warrior-women get-ups over the years; and at Prada’s sporty Spring 1999 they morphed into knee-bags. This Fall Gucciphile’s might want to try a pair of Michele’s logoed shock absorbers—just for kicks.

Originally Appeared on Vogue