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Put on your shirt, Britney: Bare is a bore
LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- A simple cotton T-shirt is threatening to end a fashion craze that has bared midriffs around the world and revealed parts of the human anatomy that, for some people, are best kept covered. Across southern California, the home of the belly-baring micro-tee popularized by pop diva Britney Spears and her teeny-bopper clones, the tiny tank top has given way to a long shirted, layered look invented by two 30-something pals. Their quest for the perfect tee led Cheyann Benedict and Claire Stansfield to start C & C California and unwittingly launched a fashion revolt against the all-too-public bare belly button. "People are sick of the bare midriff thing," Pam Cohen, owner of a Manhattan Beach, California, boutique, said as she rung up a 50-ish customer who bought $500 worth of C & C T-shirts. "Britney Spears is over. Layering is in." Cohen's boutique, Flip Flop, sells about 100 C & C T-shirts each week at $38 to $48 apiece, and ships another 30 or so to style-hungry customers who see their favorite stars dressed in the filmy tees and heard about them on "Oprah" but can't find them in stores. She doesn't see demand waning soon: "Older customers don't want to show their bellies and all the jean styles are low." Jamie Rosenthal, owner of the hip Hollywood boutique Lost & Found, where actresses Jennifer Aniston and Catherine Keener bought their C & C tees, has gotten "hundreds" of calls for the shirts and compared their popularity to the Beanie Baby craze. "It's the drug of the century," Rosenthal, who launched the brand from her store, said. "It has created in some people a sort of compulsive behavior. It turned into a craze to where we are unable to keep them in stock." Drug of the century
The secret? A soft, thin cotton reminiscent of a vintage T-shirt, a slightly clingy fit and a selection of colors like Barcalounger, Guacamole and Freezie that changes with each shipment, said Los Angeles Times fashion writer Booth Moore, who stumbled onto the growing hunger for C & C shirts while surveying the city's boutiques for hot new trends. "There is something about the smooth, soft texture of the shirts that makes them comfortable and desirable," Moore said. "Everybody seems to be really excited about it and ... very relieved. I would like to think maybe older women are standing up for their rights and saying, 'We are not going to dress like Britney Spears any more."' C & C proprietors Benedict and Stansfield said the pop princess' wardrobe was the last thing on their mind when they began roaming Los Angeles' fashion district in search of the perfect fabric about a year ago. "It wasn't a reaction against anything at all," Benedict said. "We would go shopping and couldn't find what we wanted. We are huge fans of T-shirts that are longer -- that you find in vintage stores or thrift stores. They flow on the body a different way." Stansfield, a 6-foot actress best known as Alti in the hit Fox TV show "Xena: Warrior Princess," said the concept for the shirts came from her mother, a former international flight attendant, as well as style icons of the 1960s and '70s. "I was inspired by Ali McGraw and Jackie O, the chic casual uniforms they wore, the T-shirts and jeans they wore that looked better and better with age," she said. Although neither had design or sewing experience, they stuck with their vision, defying experts who said a natural torque that made the fabric clingy was all wrong. Their first collection hit stores in late January, and by summertime, Oprah Winfrey had named the shirts among her "favorite things" and VISA had shot a commercial featuring C & C, complete with actors who played Benedict and Stansfield. Distribution deals are pending with major U.S. and European department stores and a men's line, featured in the upcoming film "Starsky & Hutch," debuts next spring. The success has been dizzying, Stansfield admits, but she gets a better barometer of their success in the streets of L.A. "The other day I saw a woman who was quite big and she was wearing two of our tanks and feeling quite good," Stansfield said. "And I felt great about that." Copyright 2003 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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I was inspired by Ali McGraw and Jackie O, the chic casual uniforms they wore.
