StyleList writer Lindsey Schickner understands the sacrifice involved in fashion. Sometimes it’s the physical pain of an absurd shoe, and sometimes it’s the psychological pain of a lamé dress that makes everyone feel like they have to diet as soon as they put it on. But other times, it’s dignity. She set hers aside for a moment to try spring’s diaper-shorts trend. She got herself a $725 Dolce & Gabbana sheer floral top and matching $650 high-waisted floral panty-shorts and strutted through her office and then onto the streets of the city.
She writes:
[M]y confidence took a dive faster than Michael Phelps at the Olympics.
The light was so bright on my completely exposed legs. I wanted to run back inside immediately…
“What the — is she wearing?” slapped me back to the reality that I was strutting around in basically no bottoms – including some co-workers who didn’t recognize me! This was a chorus that was echoed regularly by strangers throughout the course of my hour-long experiment, along with cat calls from construction workers and yes, even the Good Humor man.
In Starbucks, one barista refused to look at me while another extolled the virtues of my outfit. “I like the material,” he said of the silky bottoms. “It’s almost like shorts. They will be good for summer.”
And that is the problem with these bottoms. They’re not shorts, they’re underwear, and the only girl who could really be fine in them is the girl that enjoys inviting leers and catcalls. In considering this, maybe that’s why designers brought bona fide bottoms back for fall, which is a conservative, minimalist season and a complete departure from spring. Most women only walk around in their underwear when no one else is around. Compulsory sluttiness just doesn’t work.
Testing the Pantless Trend in New York City [StyleList]
