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Show February 1, 2006 DAILY HERALD STYLE-PHILE Skirting: The issue Robin Givhan THE WASHINGTON POST BEAUTY, HOME AND FASHION AT YOUR FINGERTIPS This week in New Jersey, a male high schoolsenior won the right to wear a skirt to school. The Associated Press reported that Michael Coviello's skirt fight began when he was barred from wearing « shorts. His schooldistrict prohibits shorts from Oct. 1 Fabri 15. But it seemed reasonable to Coviello that since girls could sport skirts and soudtscloweatiesom privileges. P30 Coviello began wearing skirts — including kilt — until he was sent home by his principal. The American Civil Liberties Union intervened and brokered a compromise. Schoolofficials in Hasbrouck Heights did not budge on the shorts ban, but they agreed to allow Coviello his skirts. This is a rather dubious victory. Whileit is admirable that a student fought for and won a kind of genderparity, simply because fellow has been afforded the right to wear askirt does not necessaril: mean that he should. This is not an issue of boysvs.girls. It’s a matterof aesthetics. Not everyone — male or female — belongs ina skirt. Consider Sen. Hillary }/Associated Press Francisco Costa posesfor a photograph with booksthatinspire him on Dec.13,in hisoffice at Calvin Kl Costais the lead designerat the signature American fashion house. in New York. Francisco Costa, in Calvin Klein’s shoes,hits his stride It took almost threeeae but withhis spring 2006 collection, the Brazilianfinally ha: thefashion industry’s approval | Samantha Critchell THE ASSOCIATED PRESS. Fashion folk are supposed to have a short span ofattention. They're supposed to hop from one trendto the next and keep toreae next big thing. At same time,the designers,retailers,stylists and editors that make up the American fashion community, gathering again in February for New York Fashion Week,also have a deep devotion toits godfathers (and mothers). The crowd keeps clapping as Ralph Lauren kisses each member of his family during his runway bow, and hundreds of time-pressed people make the trip to see Donna Karan’s catwalk show, even whenshe holds it in an inconvenient spot. None of this should've been good news for Francisco Costa, the lucky or unlucky guy — depending who you ask — who took overcreative duties at Calvin Klein when the house's namesake designerleft almost three years ago. Yet Costa persevered. ‘The industry patiently stood by as Costa the white, that was me,” Costa says. Sitting in his small, spare square of an office that’s “decorated” withpiles of photography books, Costa retraces his unusual journey from the mountains in Brazil to the headquarters of one of the most celebrated and well-knownfashion brands, owned by corporate behemothPhillips Van Heusen. “The environment I grew up in was very simple.It was very beautiful but because ofthe climate, everyone was alwaysin a whiteshirt. I never saw mysisterin color.” Costalearned about using colorin fashion from Oscar de la Renta, whom Costa served as an assistant for seven years after moving to New Yorkto study at both Hunter College and then the FashionInstitute of Technology. “My dad thought I was crazy to come to New Yorktodo fashion,” he recalls. “I didn't love New YorkCity atfirst. I thought it was dirty and ugly, but now “The most recentcollection was a great home wouldn't be anywhereelse.I've been blend of whatI like and what the house represents. The clean,easy paletteis Calvin here longer than Brazil. New Yorkers Klein. The shapes,the shirts, the use of cot- are2welcoming.If you work, you get it bac! ton — all Calvin Klein. The lightness and got off to an underwhelming start with his early collections. The reward was a spring 2006 presentation that was oneofthe best of the season. “| just felt likehis last collection had real currency toit,” says Cindi Leive,editorin chief of Glamour. “It was predictive of everything that followed — the big trends werethere:floaty, away-from-yourbody shapes; beautiful bell shapes; sheer fabrics; beautiful details; and 857 varieties of white.” W magazine's Bridget Foley putit on her top 10 list alongside Balenciaga, Prada an¢ MarcJacobs, and Costa's white dresses — thatskillfully blended Calvin Klein's signature minimalism withsofter lines — were called “dreamy,” “exemplar” and “ethereal” by other reviewers. “I saw it as my role to makethe collection little more feminine,” says Costa. Asneakerthat shoos the fat while walking? pe on “core muscles.” Two daysafter wentback in the box, my hes werestill feeling a burn. Bobbling around a few chairs revealed nothing about cellulite, but lots about the shoe's design. Z A layered rubber sole curves like the runners of a rocking chair. An embedded spring provides some bounce. The lack of a heel forces a different gait, with smaller steps. To gain stal ay can't straighten. Standing still feels like balancing on a ball. The whole tine works by keeping muscles on conant alert. seller was in South Korea last week and not available to explain in more Linda Hales THE WASHINGTON POST Atootsmecongore'sweehing and guru, is weig! in ontheMBT, an unconventional walking shoe that has generated buzz on two continents for — joints, oe, abs foot ne oa ct Sete: land, not Africa. the claims can't be confirmed, but the general idea is in: t : Trade flat shoes for hard, flat a special curvedbottom that makes work No street can be reported, but a sign in window of Comfort ‘Swiss Masai design and to market about six years ago by Karl Muller, a Swiss engineer former athlete trying to overcome his own foot and back pain. He devised a serious medical shoe that would simu- ri Challenge of walking barefoot on soft earth, as in agricultural societies have done for millennia, and ee ‘The MBT, which stands for Masai Barefoot Technology,is out of Switzerland, but the general idea is intriguing: notAfrica. All the claims can't be Trade hard, flat shoes for hard, flat — by donning a special curved-bottom sneaker that makes muscles work tribesman was good for sculpting calves and dropping ex: ‘cess inches, and maybe In this country, the The,uchcots 28an. have disappeared int ee oueacite Tas ator'suaoe also coined the ea twe 8 Seo boutiques, the MBT a jation as @ personal trainer. ts that the extra effort required to walk like a Masai ers includes (andMaria, and Annette, Bono, YokoGwynah and Cher. Forbes dubbed the shoes “ugly bags. A wi on Jodhoppers” but recommended them frp we spend ang ors thieshoes hk ce footwear,but i makes more sense to think of them as workout equi . Novice wearers are told to figure on 10 to 30 minutes over the first week as they feel their way to “lower abdomen stabilization. af MBTsthrough a four-minute at a Comfort One. Manager Chris Allen has been trained to warn of the ef- that Muller wanited to simulate walking on sand. My toes were not transport: to the Caribbean, much less East Africa, where the Masai live, The shoe is hard, not cushy inside. ‘The shoe's aesthetics won't turn too many heads. MBTsare bnly beginning to work n into the shoe tops. But pela rr not mistake the boldest for the blandest Nike or Reebok. About those benefits; Casser doesn't a cellulite re But the Swiss site does. company has paid for biomechanical studies, but Ravick says the researchisn’t solid enough to Jarabe paras neuiral. He's not positive wat Tooks like ‘you'velost your mind when you're wearing these things,” he says. Rodham Clinton.After eight yearsas first |: dy wearing innumerable + cirt suits that didlittle to flarter her physique, she now wearspants almost exclusively. As a matter of personal style, this is a good thing. The senator looks morestreamlined and elegant. And she has not been shy about acknowledging — rather wryly — how important her ubiquitous black pantsuit was during her election campaign. Laura Bush oncenoted that although some Americans preferto see the first lady ina skirt ordress,she finds trousers far morepractical on certain occasions, such as whenvisiting schools. Certainly there are some men wholook splendid in a skirt. Brad Pitt in “Troy” cuta striking figure with his muscular quads. He might wantto consider working a Kilt into his everyday newdaddy wardrobe. Coviello is not a skirt kind of guy. In a photograph documenting his fashion victory, he wearsa red plaid kilt with a black “AndJustice for All” Metallica T-shirt. Because he is built morelikea football player than a sprinter, the skirt dissects his body ‘nto unflattering sections, He would be better served if the skirt and T-shirt werein the samecolor family. Just a suggestion. Coviello's adopted style calls to mind’Ax] Rose during his heyday with Guns N’ Roses. Coviello is wearing the costume of disgruntled “outh. Kurt Cobain may have preferred the baby-doll dress to makehis point, but the skirt and T-shirt send a similar messageof being disenchanted with the system. Where Coviello's ensemble goes wrong, however,is with the scuffed NewBalance sneakers. Theytake the tough,rebellious edgeoff the look and sendit spiraling into the land of soft-serve suburbia. While the wardrobe of skirtsis sure to haunt Coviello at his 10th reunion, he deserves the eternal gratitude of the avant-garde designers in the fashion industry. For years they have been trying to encourage men to wear skirts, reminding them that in ancient times and in some non-Western cultures, a man in a skirt is an expression of strength and virility. Designers love the notion of men in kilts and sarongs because it gives them a whole new categoryof attire with which to tinker. They feign naive lusion about why most Western men refuse to embrace the notion, The reason, of course,is no great mystery; Men are afraid people will laugh. Itis enolic to chuckle at the image Coviello in his skirt. And truth be told, there wasa bit of tittering on our part. It is also tough to get riled up and indignant about students being denied the right to wear shorts to school once the temperature drops. Wouldn't they get cold anyway? jut Coviello makes a reasonable point. Schools should be fair, If girls can wear skirts, then so should boys. Fashion, however,is not fair. And in matters of style, beright is not the same as winning the argument. |