Fashion Salon

The Hemline Effect

FASHION - Spring-summer 2009 collections – the current season in the always mad, seasonally dyslexic world of fashion – are showing short skirts and dresses that scarcely cover the important bits. The mini skirt is the message.

Traditionally there's been the belief in the "hemline effect", which is reputed to be an economic indicator created by U.S. economist George Taylor in the 1920s, suggesting that when hemlines go up, the economy is likely to improve. Meanwhile the United States one of the worst economic climates since September 11th, and its in a credit crisis.

But will women spend their hard-earned money on mini-skirts just because the fashion designers think the economy will improve? Or is this just fashion designers trying to cash in on the philosophy of showing lots of leg?

Designer and bespoke dressmaker Rosemarie Umetsu of R.U. boutique in Toronto agrees that there is always a market for short-short-short.

"I always have short in my collections and, for spring, it is the really big news. Knee-grazing or thigh-grazing, the skirt is the focus for next season."

For her, it's the shape that takes short from Bada-Bing to boardroom.

"Next season, the shape is strong without being girlie," says Umetsu, and it may be true. As she sees it, the new mini isn't tight and tarty, it is either a sort of shortened '50s or '60s wide or in such wonderful fabrics and treatments that less is more.

Still, if we are in a recession time, then short and sweet is a good sign right?

Not so, because this is a classic conservative look at short skirts... so its more about being conservative and yet trying to be optimistic. Wow. The psychology of fashion is kind of deep when you think about it.

Socks and Sandals?

FASHION - Long derided as the ultimate menswear misstep, wearing socks with sandals is being elevated to the status of fashion trend.

The S&S look, commonly worn by nerdy tourists, aging hippies, grunge musicians and outdoorsy types, was trotted out unabashedly during the spring menswear collections of designers like Miuccia Prada, Stefano Pilati for Yves Saint Laurent and Nicolas Ghesquiere for Balenciaga.

For fashionistas, this odd coupling of socks and sandals constitutes a particularly egregious type of male fashion crime and belongs in a category that includes flood pants, too-tight clothing, pinkie rings and fanny packs.

Nevertheless, a handful of truly directional fashion designers feels they have the clout to turn what's considered by many to be a lapse in judgment into something that approaches avant garde.

The look is loathed, particularly by women.

Check sandalandsoxer.co.uk for examples of men who have been captured on film in heavy work socks with Birkenstocks or black dress socks with Tevas.

Look up "socks and sandals" in the Urban Dictionary for a definition that's blunt.

"A footwear combination worn only by the fashion-challenged."

"If it's hot enough for sandals, it's too hot to wear socks. If it's cold enough to wear socks, it's too cold for sandals."

The socks-and-sandals trend is part of the larger nerd movement that may go back as early as the 1950s, when teens wore jeans with turned-up hems and horn-rimmed glasses.

In the decades since, the dork-as-fashion icon has surfaced periodically in men's and women's attire.

According to the experts, the movement reached its geeky zenith in the '90s when members of the burgeoning computer-savvy generation soared to financial success – creatively turning geek into chic.

Its sex appeal would come later. Remember the bumper sticker "Talk Nerdy to Me"?

In his new book American Nerd: The Story of My People, Benjamin Nugent suggests the Saturday Night Live characters Lisa Loopner (Gilda Radner) and boyfriend Todd (Bill Murray) may have parented subsequent generations of nerds, including such famous dorks as the characters in Revenge of the Nerds and the socially awkward Napoleon Dynamite.

Today, the TV show Beauty and the Geek keeps the spirit alive that being tragically un-hip is decidedly cool.

Consider the cool and un-cool boyfriend of Juno in the film of the same name. The character played by Brampton's Michael Cera walks a fine line. At one point, Juno tells the young father of her yet-unborn child that she loves him because he's so effortlessly cool. He responds by admitting that he works really hard at looking effortless.

Though he doesn't wear socks and sandals in the film, he represents the cool power of not chasing cool.

To pull the look off with panache, there has to be irony. David Beckham and Jake Gyllenhaal have been photographed in sandals and socks. And while they have retained their sex symbol status, they have been judged harshly by style watchers.

So, be warned, this sudden burst of interest in socks and sandals on the runways of Europe does not give regular Joes permission to engage with the look. Anyone considering it should approach with extreme caution.

Wearing socks and sandals is still the sartorial equivalent of pulling the waistband of your pants up to your armpits Urkel-style. Put a foot wrong in these new designer versions and you could be mistaken for a backpacking tourist from Dusseldorf.

That's the challenge associated with all geek-chic trends – making sure the viewer knows you know better, but you're doing it anyway.

Male Speedo

FASHION - When Daniel Craig emerged from the Caribbean sea in Casino Royale, his brief trunks not only recalled another iconic James Bond swimsuit scene stealer – Ursula Andress emerging from the surf in her flesh coloured bikini in Dr. No – but it ignited a trend.

What started as a ripple when the movie was released two years ago, has now become a full blown tidal wave trend.

Men's swimsuits have gone short, snug and sleek as the Speedo-style suit makes a comeback.

But the skimpy men's bathing suit has been the object of much derision in popular culture thanks to Borat and Will Ferrell, so why is it suddenly anointed cool status?

A recent ad for a Dolce & Gabbana men's fragrance features British supermodel David Gandy, reclining on a yacht, splayed out in a tight white swimsuit, and two of the fashion world's hippest photographers – Matthias Vriens and Terry Richardson – have been pushing a '70s porn aesthetic in their work, Freeman says.

And now Bond is going back to briefs.

Men look at the gadgets and the cars in that movie and then they see Daniel Craig in those snug trunks and it gives them permission – they think, if it's okay for James Bond its okay for me...

But their body better be licensed to thrill.

FASHION - This blog will be dedicated to the history of fashion, fashion news, celebrity fashion, fashion and beauty tips, the interplay between sexuality, feminism and fashion, health issues like anorexia, bulimia and obesity and of course... the fashion police.