Dressy shorts, banned models, and first date panties

In the front page of the WSJ today: Fashion Dictates Men Show More Leg

A new men's fashion trend pairing sportcoats with dressy shorts is making some retailers, not to mention regular guys, nervous.

Designers are trying to bring back a trend that never caught on outside Bermuda, even in the tropics. Only tourist old fogies drinking too much rum by the pool tried that one in P.R. The dead-tree article has a photo of a nice-looking young man on the runway wearing a beige suit (jacket and shorts) and necktie, orange shirt, and sandals, which caused my son to comment, "he looks like a record producer from Orange County".

The article quotes a guy that said,

"Shorts with a suit jacket would make me feel a little too Little Lord Fauntlreoy"

especially if he wore a floppy bow tie with that.

Is Spain starting a trend?
Madrid bans waifs from catwalks

Madrid fashion week, one of Spain's most prestigious shows, is banning underweight models on the basis of their body mass index (BMI).
UN health experts recommend a BMI of between 18.5 and about 25, and some models may fall well below the minimum.

The Spanish Association of Fashion Designers has decided to ban models who have a BMI of less than 18.

Sounds OK so far, since the fashion industry's obsession with anorexia (not that they call it that, they call it "gazelle-like" models, which is insulting both to gazelles and women) as a beauty standard is unhealthy but here's the punch line:

Spain's Anorexia and Bulimia Association says if designers refuse to follow these voluntary restrictions the government should legislate to ban thin models.

Because all of Spain's problems will be solved by banning anorexics from the catwalk?

First date panties
Another trend I didn't know about was that of first date panties, but thanks to the Carnival of the Insanities I heard about this, and then last night I was channel surfing and came across a scene in Sex & the City where the old-girl main character is speculating whether the guy she's going out with (played by the cute guy from My Fat Greek Wedding) is gay because he hasn't wanted to have sex with her, even when they've been going out for all of . . . a week and a half.

I guess her first-date panties were disappointed.

According to the cable channel banner (displayed on the bottom of the TV screen), the episode's title was "Are We Sluts?", a question to which we all know the answer.

I didn't stay tuned to find out if she ordered a $225.00 bottle of wine, but at least the guy wasn't wearing dressy shorts.

Thank goodness for that.

In further panty news
Gurus Slip Into Some Hanes.

(technorati tags Fashion, dressy shorts, fashion trends, fashion news, Sex and the City, Hanes)