Skaters rock a slim style

BACK in the proverbial day -- 1990 or so -- skateboarding and hip-hop became linked in the public imagination because of the cultures' shared affinities: baggy clothing, backward baseball caps and in-your-face attitude. Nowadays, though, skateboarders are returning to their punk rock roots. Skinny is the new \o7phat\f7.

Skateboard trendsetters from Venice Beach to Brooklyn have adopted the low-slung skinny jeans favored by rock stars, junkies and supermodels. Never mind that the jeans' ultra-snug fit makes skating more than a little difficult.

Blame the teenage Latino skate-punk protagonists of writer-director Larry Clark's "Wassup Rockers" for helping popularize the look, which turned up recently in Teen Vogue. Attention skaters: "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy"-era Rod Stewart called and he wants his pants back. (So do many of the skaters' older sisters -- a lot of the male skaters in skinny jeans look to be wearing women's designer denim.)

For a generation of post-metrosexual extreme sports enthusiasts the look seems to be, ahem, a good fit.

-- Chris Lee