ERROR:
subscribe to style file blog via RSSThe Skinny On Legs
May 12, 2009 2:58 pm
Make of this information what you will: I was recently informed by the publicists for both Acne and Ksubi that the denim makers will be introducing their “skinniest jeans ever” for fall. (Same wording, both times.) Given that neither Acne nor Ksubi has ever been known for the roominess of their fits, this bit of spin struck me as either specious or confirmation of the fact that the long, skinny leg is coming back with a vengeance. Look at the Fall runways—leather leggings, over-the-knee boots, mini everything. Sigh. Anyone blessed with stick-thin pins can stop reading now; for everyone else, Equinox celebrity fitness trainer Kacy Duke has some tips on how to shape up and sleek out your thighs in time for the Fall/Winter deliveries. Duke—who has trained Julianne Moore, Kirsten Dunst, and Gwen Stefani—suggests that women looking for long and lean focus on fluid movements with a “sense of grace.” “This is not about pumping iron,” she notes. “That’s going to bulk you up. What you need to do is pull up, like a dancer, and exercise those muscles that lift and separate.” (She goes on to note that “lifting and separating” starts at the back side—long, lean legs do not emerge from a sagging behind.) Duke sets out plenty of exercises in her book The Show It Love Workout, but her silver-bullet move is one you can do at home, without any weights, provided there’s a flat, relatively slick surface where you live. Step one foot on a towel, skate that leg out as wide as you can, so that the leg on the floor goes into a lunge, touch the ground, then skate the towel foot back, making sure to keep it parallel to the one on the floor. Once you’ve arrived back at an upright position, skate the same leg behind you, into a deep lunge, touch the floor, and pull the back leg up again, keeping it straight. Repeat, ad nauseam, and yes, this is all harder than it sounds. Then do it a bunch of times with the towel on the other foot, thinking all the while, as Duke puts it, “of the goddess inside you.” (Seriously, it helps. That whole fluidity and grace thing, etc.) Duke swears up and down that doing this one thing—daily—will result in a noticeable improvement in your silhouette within three weeks. Give it until July, when the leather leggings and “skinniest jeans ever” are due to arrive in stores, and you might feel all right about your wardrobe for fall.
tags: Acne, Gwen Stefani, Julianne Moore, Kirsten Dunst, Ksubi
Maya, We can chalk it up to three, which officially makes it a trend. I just went shopping at Earnest Sewn and realized that almost-straight-leg skinny Harlan jean had gotten a whole lot skinnier. The shopgirl told me that I was right and that on the whole, all the ES styles are getting progressively skinnier. I think the skinny jean has become the corset of our day.
By Mmistry on 05/13/09 at 10:31 am