Fashion 101

A busy weekend has allowed me to get behind on the latest fashion gossip, but it turns out most people are seriously behind when it comes to the origins of some fashion statements. Realsimple.com tried to change this yesterday morning by educating the masses.

Some lessons of interest:

Pointy-toe shoes. Yes, I'm a fan. After graduating from high school I decided I might go the round pump route, but clocking in at the time under 5'4" and wearing round toed shoes = midget territory. If there's one thing 'What Not To Wear' soon taught me, it was that I needed some pointy shoes to elongate my profile. After that, I was hooked. Well, it turns out that these pointy toed shoes weren't just the fashion fad of 2004. They've actually been around for about 700 years. But truth be told, they weren't always used to elevate one's stature - at least not in the sense I was exploring. Polish laws dictated the allowable length of pointy toed shoes based on one's social status. If you were just an everyday chap, you better not sport a toe longer than six inches. Rich and famous? Well then, you can go for up to two feet. And I used to think walking in spikes was a feat (no pun intended). Turns out pointy-toed shoes have always been for the divas.

Mary Janes. The shoe, not the illegal substance. I used to think these were cute when I was, oh, say twelve. Now, when I see one of my students wearing them I can't help but cry out in the tunes of fashion emergency. Maybe it has something to do with the rounded toes, but I associate Mary Janes with youngsters. So does history - about a hundred years ago these shoes obtained their name from a character in "Buster Brown," a children's comic. I rest my case.

Itching for more fashion trivia? Check it out at: http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/homestyle/10/12/rs.fashion.truths/index.html?iref=newssearch