The fashion world "is ready" for the upcoming FIFA World Cup, as every four years, designers "have a chance to locate, scout and mint a new fashion star" among the top players of the tournament, according to a Fashion & Style section piece by John Koblin of the N.Y. TIMES. Man of the World magazine Fashion Dir Julie Ragolia: "They are the perfect sample size. They are not huge like an American football or basketball player. You can take a footballer and put him in a sample, and he’d look 100 percent beautiful." A short list "has already emerged of the next World Cup-bound players who are ripe for future ad campaigns and reserved front-row seats," including Brazil players Neymar and Oscar, Japan MF Keisuke Honda and a "few Europeans thrown into the mix." If there is "one guy who's gotten the early endorsement, it appears to be" Neymar. Oscar also bares a "considerable amount of flesh" in a Brazil-specific Calvin Klein campaign. Men's designer Robert Geller said people in Japan "are just crazy" for Honda. After those three players, the consensus "seems to fall apart, with at least a dozen other players being cited as potential breakout stars" (N.Y. TIMES, 6/8). The N.Y. TIMES' Koblin wrote under the header, "Three To Watch: Neymar, Oscar And Keisuke Honda Are The Ones To Watch At The World Cup" (N.Y. TIMES, 6/8).
COLOR KICK: In N.Y., Sam Borden noted while soccer cleats used to generally be colored black, these days, the "only ones still wearing black cleats are the referees." Everyone else "looks as though he got into a fight with a rainbow." Major shoe companies "have planned a veritable parade of pigment for Brazil," and the names "sound like smoothie flavors: Metallic Mach Purple, Prism Violet, Earth Green, Solar Slime." Nike’s new shoes "have bold pinks and yellows," while adidas’s freshest models "are a sort of mottled, fluorescent-lizard-style shoe that blares loud blues and oranges." Puma "appears to be going for an odd, gender-neutral sort of statement," as its new line "features a design in which one shoe in each pair is pink while the other is blue" (N.Y. TIMES, 6/8).
