A woman with a great figure (and many young celebrity-role models fell into this category) would likely seize on the bare midriff trend to show off their shape, particularly when contrasted with the belly of the average real-life female; but as the bare midriff practice grew, pressure among the much larger (pardon the pun) population to do the same was bound to kill the fad. Males are all familiar with the sight of a plump woman in the mall who, despite offering a revealing look at her middle, should have covered up. Over time, as the practice caught on among a wider swath of the female population, it stands to reason, many of these women likely failed in the desired result, ie, to attract favorable attention from men, and are growing rather self conscious about baring themselves in a way they probably never would have considered before the trend began.

Perhaps men, having an abundance of choice (at least to look at), never thinking that they might be squelching the trend, and given the male reputation for being crude and insensitive, were not reluctant to in some cases offer these women their honest opinions about how these women compared to, say, Britney Spears.

While I’m at it, the same likely holds true for middle-aged women (representing a still larger segment of the clothes-buying population) who may not be as trim as they once were, and are frustrated by a trend that does the very opposite of flattering them.

The bare midriff is just not a long-term trend for our times (regretfully).

I stumbled onto this post on the economics and anthropology of the bare midriff at This Blog Sits at the….

And how many males have been in the terribly awkward position of noticing an outlier whom you then realize is likely younger than voting age? As a matter of practical social decorum, I say the pendulum of provacative dress swinging back towards modesty is way overdue.

1) Why is it that, in general, only the
women who should have bare mid-riffs, do
have bare mid-riffs?

2) What is the value of the public good
created by the designer who came up with
low rise jeans and bare mid-riff blouses?
He or she must have captured only a tiny,
tiny fraction of all of the surplus
generated, which means, of course, that
skin-revealing fashions are underproduced.
This immediately implies the need for
government subsidies to correct this
troublesome market imperfection.

Jeff

And almost always it’s an 18 year old, (plus 5 minus 3) look. Sexy & young & fresh; with sexy not always a lot of skin.

I noticed that Pokemon lost a lot of coolness when 8 year old “brats” started following it. If the single digit age set is wearing it, doing it, it can’t be THAT cool.

In Slovakia, bell bottoms came back a couple of years ago, slightly — but only among girls. I’m sure there’s significant fashion cycle differences between guys and chicks. But cool guys will always want promiscuous sex.

anyone?