Tuesday, March 02, 2010

no-show/much show

Gym-bound yuppie men in my neighborhood sport a very distinct look these days, almost to a one: a hoodie; long fluttery shorts almost to the knee; and shoes with (always) no-show socks. Their calves look very vulnerable. It's a very calf-focused look. You can sit and watch these dudes scamper about starting around 4:30 p.m.

Apart from the fact that it's taking me a while to disassociate the no-show sock look from the little socks with pom-poms that my grandmother wore to play tennis in the 70s, I do find it kind of a funny uniform, which is very distinct once you are used to divining it. I am going to go work out, and for the next 10 minutes while I run to the gym it doesn't matter if it's 10 degrees out--my calves can take it. On the coldest days there are sometimes pants, but even they are often unzipped at the bottom to show more calf. It's kind of peacock-like, all that calf. Dudes are showing it off. A new filip in the zexy but all-business street gym look.

Addendum to be explored: Connection of contemporary calf-focused fashion to Elizabethean focus on male calves?

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