monday, april 6, 1981
spring fashion supplement to the daily nebraskan
page 13
Miniskirts . . .
,4
it
Continued from Page 12
"Not at all," I said.
We went to his desk. He sat down, and
indicated a chair I could use.
"What sorts of things are fashion design
ers influenced by?" I said.
"Whatever strikes them right becomes
fashion," said Cosmo. He reached into his
wallet and pulled out a set of credit cards.
"You're absolutely certain about women's
skirts for this year?" he asked.
"Got the whole scoop from Cable News
Network."
"Uh-huh," lie uh-huhhed. He pulled out
his lighter and set fire to his stack of credit
cards.
"This has nothing to do with what you
said about women's skirts," he said as we
watched the plastic cards melt into a glob
in the ash tray. "I've been meaning to do
this for a long time, really."
I acted like I believed him. "Anyway, is
it really as easy as you say, that whatever
the designer says is going to be fashionable
becomes fashionable?"
"Well, there's a limit to everything. The
public occasionally turns against a design."
More leg, no vacation
"Yeah, I remember when you told me
that Nehru collars were going to be the big
thing in the late 60s. I still have one of
those shirts you sold me. Wear it to parties.
People think I'm a priest on leave."
"I'd rather not be reminded of the, uh,
Nehru problem," said Cosmo softly. "1
took a real financial bath that year."
Cosmo reached into a desk drawer and
pulled out a travel brochure advertising
vacations in Europe. "When you say skirts
are going to be shorter, how short do you
mean?" he said suddenly, a worried look
on his face. "Are we talking about the
Carnaby Street look coming back? The
miniskirt?"
"Some of them are just barely above the
knee," I said. Cosmo looked relieved. "But
a lot of them were pretty daring. I would
go so far as to call some of the fashions I
saw in the report miniskirts."
Cosmo casually tore the travel brochure
in half.
"What are you doing that for?" I asked.
"Oh, I decided against going to Europe
this year," he said, tearing the halves into
smaller pieces. "It's not the money, of
course. Like I said, I expect a booming
market this year as the economy gets
better. I just think, well, what does Paris
have to offer that I couldn't get in, say,
Wichita?"
It was getting time to leave. I wanted to
just go, but I knew I would feel guilty
(actually, I knew Cosmo would make sure I
felt guilty) if I didn't buy something before
I left. I had to go cheap, so I looked at the
socks. "I'll take a pair of socks," I said.
"I don't sell socks," said Cosmo. "I can
get you some designer anklewear, though.
Special price to you of $8.50 a set."
"I thought they were $8.50 for every
body?" I said.
"Okay, for you, seven dollars. My final
offer. Pay only in cash.
"Will you take a check?"
"No chance. Listen, if you can't scrape
up the money, just for you I will take the
label off the anklewear and sell them to
you as socks for two bucks if you don't tell
anybody. And remember, this is just a
favor for you. I'm not doing this because I
need the money ox anything. I don't
believe for a minute that the return of
short skirts is a sign of bad economic times
ahead."
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