Mischa Barton in a FM shirt

[Dreamz19]

Originally Posted by Nico

I pretty much like Mischa Barton's style

I personally thinks she looks terrible most of the time. I liked her clothes on "The O.C," but that was mainly due to the stylist on that show.

[Livia]

http://www.kansas.com/164/story/60293.html

Can we all just say no to mom jeans? Please?

It's a cycle that keeps the fashion world spinning: Every few years, styles from decades past resurface, and what's old is suddenly new again. This is fine with me as long as the items resurfacing are harmless -- like cork-soled sandals or black leggings.

But I've got to draw the line at mom jeans.

Lately, I keep seeing photos of stylish young celebrities wearing hideous jeans with waistlines parked a good three inches north of their belly buttons.

The terrible trousers were famously dubbed "mom jeans" in a "Saturday Night Live" spoof commercial that showed moms gardening, shopping and tending to the kids in elastic-waisted, torso-swallowing dungarees.

Give mom "something that says, 'I'm not a woman anymore, I'm a mom,' " the commercial urged. "She'll love the 9-inch zipper and casual front pleats!"

I can't find the words to explain the crimes that this cut commits against the female figure. Even pleasingly proportioned people like, say, Scarlett Johansson end up looking like Russian dolls wearing denim diapers.

The most famous mom jeans offender of late is actress Mischa Barton, who was recently photographed wearing a Fleetwood Mac concert tee tucked into the some of the most revolting pants I've seen since the late 1980s, when I sold mom jean atrocities at the Brass Buckle.

Alarmed, I begged Eagle fashion maven Bonnie Bing to tell me that these young starlets were just getting carried away with vintage-wear and that mom jeans were not coming back into style.

She couldn't. Waistlines are inching up, and I'd better get used to it, Bonnie told me. And although she didn't personally endorse mom jeans, she added her own colorful insights on the recent low-rise trend, which offends her sensibilities in every way possible.

Could we possibly just split the difference?

Battling shoe blues

Here's some more fashion pain -- this of the literal variety.

Last weekend, I visited my sister in Kansas City and we shopped shopped shopped.

I forced myself to take on the unpleasant task of buying new shoes.

It's not that I don't love shoes. I really do. But for me, shoe shopping is often a no-win situation.

Here's the problem.

Shoes are expensive. Shoes, especially the cute one, are also often quite uncomfortable.

But there's no way to know exactly how uncomfortable until you've left the store and worn them for an entire day of your real life, thus rendering them and their battered bottoms unreturnable.

I hate to think about how much money I've spent over the years on shoes I couldn't wear without developing blisters or hellish lower back pain.

Any solutions out there?

Reach Denise Neil at 316-268-6327 or dneil@wichitaeagle.com.