Fashion Conundrum: The Skinnies

Thanks to Audrey Hepburn's Gap commercial, skinny jeans are everywhere this fall. But, seriously, The Cat's Pajamas knows that unless you actually want to exaggerate those child-bearing hips, these things should only be worn by the tiniest of bulimics — and then only if they've got waif legs, too. So what to do if you actually eat and aren't a rocker strung out on coke all day? Is there a secret to picking out these jeans and looking fashion forward instead of fashion victim? Cat went to gal-about-town Summer Forrest, who owns Square 1 Denver, the denim shop in Larimer Square.

The good news is, she says you don't have to wear them. "You have to be really confident to wear skinnies," Forrest tells Cat. "So many women are afraid of them. In fact, I don't like them. I don't like the way they make my body look."

But if you do decide to succumb, she warns that cigarette jeans should only be worn with a high heel or a cute flat. "You have to go all the way — either way — with these. Nothing in between. No running shoes. ... They've been wearing them cropped because of the Gap commercial, but for fall I'm seeing them worn really long and scrunched up to look like legwarmers, too."

Also, go dark, very dark. Because like the color white, light denim has a way of adding about thirty pounds. Even the starlets are wearing their jeans in indigo.

But don't get too used to the lean silhouette, because for spring Forrest says she's seeing big, wide '70s bells coming into the shop.

Cat will just stick with her bootcuts, thank you very much.