He also created and popularized the one-piece gym wear that now bears his name and inspired the 1867 song "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze", sung by George Leybourne.

After he passed his law exams, he seemed destined to join the legal profession,[2] but at age 18 he began to experiment with trapeze bars, ropes, and rings suspended over a swimming pool.

[4] The costume he invented was a one-piece knitted garment streamlined to suit the safety and agility concerns of trapeze performance.

At age twenty-four in July 1862, Léotard married a Tuscan actress named Silvia Bernini, whom he had met earlier in January.

Bernini then went to a hotel, disguised herself as a servant, and "cut off her hair, sent it to her husband in a parcel, and attempted to commit suicide by throwing herself into the Seine.