Fashion Blog by Catherine Toli

Skins, the new fashion fad?My keeping up with fashion trends finished when the era of wearing dresses over pants came to an end...


For those too young to remember this was somewhere before the start of the new millennium when Tony Braxton’s love songs were on all our cassette tapes. These were of course taped from the radio after spending many painstaking nights in front of my stereo waiting for my favourite songs to come on. I then had the tricky task of doing my own editing to try and erase the DJ's voice from the introduction and end of the song.

Fast forward to one decade later and I haven’t kept up with fashion trends since. When I finally realised that girls were wearing belts outside their tops it was too late. I was pregnant so couldn't find a belt big enough. And when minis came back into fashion I was horrified. Let's just say the only mini I want to be seen in is a Mini Cooper.

Catherine ToliOne fashion trend that I have found intriguing of late is the wearing of 'skins'. These little numbers that were at one time confined to the All Blacks camp have now found themselves into street wear. My husband tries to tell me that they're made from revolutionary fabric that helps to relax muscles after training, or keep ligaments warm or something like that. But let's face it guys - these are in fact tights. I'm sorry - they're tight, made of stretchy fabric, shiny and footless and this revolutionary material looks suspiciously to me like Lycra. And you can't tell me that guys have come straight from training at the late night session of I Am Legend.

Catherine Toli's 'The Hulk' style leggings, making a comebackWearing tights also became popular with girls - this fitted me just fine as stretchy fabric feels so good. But alas, after wearing my tights for a while they seem to have shrunk - yes, it's the tights that have shrunk - ok. Now they more resemble bike pants. Does anyone remember when these were in fashion? I had a highlighter green pair with matching Lycra crop top. Picture the hulk in vibrant colour.

Scary mental images aside - there is another fashion trend emerging that is also pretty strange. Wearing tags outside of clothes. When I first saw it on one of the guys at church I thought he may have forgotten to cut it off, like when I forget to cut mine off and reveal that I've bought my top from The Warehouse. But after seeing more and more guys with their tags hanging from their clothes I realised that this was being done on purpose. I don't know why they do it, in fact I know of a few guys who got approached by a mall security guard as he suspected they had shop-lifted


Do you wear skins? If so defend yourself! Do you keep the tags on your clothes? Or is there another fashion trend out there that is more interesting? Let us know here at Spasifik.

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jozzy 09-04-2008 20:06:05
yep. these definitely scare me. any 'man' who wears these and can say: I AM KOOL with a straight face for at least 30 seconds, scares me. anything that's TIGHT and in the wrong place even and is fluroescent even, scares me. isaia toeava aside, you are not kool. tags-i haven't actually seen this phenomenon just yet-maybe that shows how kool i am...bootz.lol. and somthing i still do not u.stand...-came out wen i was in hisch...bk in..the early 20s lol-as in 2000-2004 lol. -ppl who wear their bags back to front?like, they flip their bag inside out sorta thing and instead of having the 'front' part of the backpack showing, you have the back of it showing?anyone get me? someone please explain to me why this is kool-i saw some kid out west the other day trying his best to bring this back. was that close to slapping his forehead. ps. you're osome Catherine!=D

House husband 09-04-2008 11:16:32
I think my husbands friend is taking the wearing of Skins too far! He was wearing them while training for a marathon. But now he's just wearing them around the house! What a dreamer LOL

Touchy 09-04-2008 11:05:38
the first time I saw my bro inlaw wearing Skins under his shorts I thought he was a wannabe All Black. Then I went to watch a Touch game and he wasn't the only wannabe All Black!LOL

Miz Fiki 08-04-2008 19:39:07
I own a pair of skins, i only wear them when i go for a run though (Barely ever,lol). Although i see some boys around uni who wear them under their shorts??!!And i know they havent come from the gym or training! Its simply their sense of 'style'. I guess if thats what they feel comfortable wearing, then its their choice! and as for the tags on the clothes!...BOTZ!! Lol. Im sure they just want people to see the price tag! haha but they have probably removed the little orange sticker that said $5 or special! Lol

Mr N 08-04-2008 13:59:45
Skins: sports tights worn by guys off the field as a fashion statement..... emo's also wear TIGHT apparel as a fashion statement.....hello is anyone seeing a pattern here? Who really wants to be associated with that?

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