The Bloggomist: Three Times a Trend
Fashion Opinion

Pop culture: it’s there whether we like it or not, seeping into every possible corner of our subconscious and rooting itself into the crevices of our souls. I grew up a pop culture junkie partaking in my fair share of TGIF television programming, MTV buzz bands, and exploited subculture trends.

Daisy Lowe In Dolce and Gabbana courtesy of NY Mag.com

However, it seems as though I outgrew the target demographic about 13 years ago: these days even 30 seconds worth of commercials start to deteriorate my senses and popular marketing has become more of something to avoid than a way to stay current. The reality TV stars and manufactured music divas of late don’t really register much on my radar, yet all of that changes once they cross over into the realm of fashion.
Get splashed across a couple of style blogs, sit front row at a few shows and suddenly they become virtually impossible for me to ignore. It’s true that I had very little knowledge of who Rhianna was until a) Chris Brown beat the crap out of her and b) she started popping up all over the place wearing Givenchy and Balmain. It’s not even that she’s doing it that well, what gets her the credit is that she’s doing it at all. In a world full of beaded red carpet gowns and perfect up-dos fashion puts it’s hooks in anyone in the public eye who is pushing it a little further, hence the reason everyone is getting their panties (pun intended) in a twist over Lady Gaga.

While I can’t say she is much of a “musician,” Lady Gaga is definitely an aesthetic force to be reckoned with. Staking her ground as a pop icon for the ages one-out-of-this world outfit at a time, she’s garnered a sort of cult following in both the fashion world and mainstream culture. While the average stay at home mom might not be as eager to don a nude body suit to run the kids to soccer practice, anyone who saw the parade of skivvy-clad models at the end of the spring Dolce and Gabbana show can attest that fashion is eagerly returning the love. Of all Gaga’s eyebrow raising fashion antics none have been as well documented as her strange aversion to pants and designers from Alexander Wang to Miuccia Prada to Jean-Paul Gaultier have recently embraced her bare legged habits. Although Gaga wasn’t the first provocateur to toss off her trousers in rebellion, and probably won’t be the last, she is the most visible soldier in the battle and one can’t help but trace the line of the current resurgence in thigh baring styles back to her semi-naked ways.

Whether it’s Sienna Miller channelling Edie Sedgwick, Madonna getting limber in a Louis Vuitton ad or Taylor Momsen trying way too hard to piss off her parents, the sans pants phenomenon has jumped from the fashion world to the celluloid world and successfully infected all the pretty little faces cat scratching each other for press time. Some are saying it’s a nod to cutting back during the recession and while I suppose skipping pants could save some cash, no amount of extra loot can
sufficiently prepare one for an onslaught of fashion wannabes strutting around digging granny panties out of their asses.

While I commend Lady Gaga for being a complete weird-o and utterly fearless in her ensemble choices, I am an avid lover of pants and I just won’t stand to see them devalued in favor of Jane Fonda workout wear. In the end my only questions is that after all these years of shortening skirts in the name of sexual freedom, now that we’ve completely eliminated the hemline altogether, what’s next?

Dolce and Gabbana Spring/Summer 2010 courtesy of Dolce Gabbana.it

Have our pantsless endeavors indeed boosted us to the truest form of liberty? It’s hard to tell as one can’t exactly imagine the likes of Lindsay Lohan as a freedom fighter. However, one solid fact that I can provide in this entire cheek baring revolution/fiasco is that never in my life have I been more eager to throw on a pair of wide legs and take in a Katherine Hepburn flick.

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To see more from Lindsey Ibarra, visit http://evilmonito.com/author/themisslinds/

Published on 13 November 2009 | 4 |