Push Down Your Socks and Kick Up Your Heels
If you can’t be a professional dancer, at least you can dress like one. That appears to be the message of all the women who’ve taken to wearing dance gear outside the studio and aerobics class.
Remember leg warmers, those stretchy tubes of fabric designed to keep a dancer’s calves toasty and reduce the risk of muscle pulls? They became a fashion necessity in the wake of the movie “Flashdance,” then faded out as quickly as Jennifer Beals’ acting career. Now, it’s dancing socks.
The “slouch” sock, used in rehearsals, is baggy and bunched up. So why are many women wearing them pulled up?
“The slouch comes in both long and short styles,” says Denise Frank of Some Body Aerobic Apparel in Laguna Hills. “The shorter one is in style now. It should be worn kind of bunched up near the ankle, not pulled up straight.”
Since the sock naturally bunches up, make sure you don’t tug it. You’re supposed to look like you’re on your way to an audition.
Turtle watching: The old turtleneck for men is coming into its own again. Wear it with a coordinating sport jacket and slacks for a great alternative to the old “Miami Vice” top-buttoned shirt look. But many guys are afraid to take their jackets off, fearing that the turtleneck alone looks too casual.
“A black or dark-colored turtleneck can look very nice with a coordinating pair of slacks,” says Chris Lockwood of Pendleton Sport Shop in Laguna Hills. “Brighter colors may not work as well when you’re dressing for a nice-casual event.”
The turtle is usually made of a form-fitting cotton, which means that without a jacket it can highlight those paunches you’ve been meaning to get rid of. If you’re sensitive, get a size larger than you normally wear, or try to work those love handles off before removing your jacket.
A mini-controversy: What’s the fashion equivalent of Dracula? The miniskirt, of course--no matter how many times it’s declared dead, it keeps reappearing. People still buzz about Sharon Stone’s mini in the movie “Basic Instinct,” in which she made uncrossing her legs one of the most popular gestures on film in the past few years.
But the rude truth is that when sitting down, skirts tend to ride up, and when they do, you may be revealing more than you want to outside the shower.
“The problem with the miniskirt is, unless you’ve really got great legs, it’s not going to look great on you,” says Stephanie Grani of Stephania in San Juan Capistrano. “You need to keep it pulled down as much as possible, otherwise you’ll let others focus on your legs rather than what you’re wearing.”
The mini may be heading for the grave again. With fall weather closing in, skirts are lengthening, and the mini may be gone for a while. But don’t get too excited; if we just went through a revival of the miniskirt, can hot-pants be far behind?