The World's Game (According to Us)

The skort takes soccer by storm ... or not.

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Soccer and an outspoken reality show winner? What's not to love?

Soccer is arguably the most fashionable of team sports. Just the other day in London, Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink decided to instill team discipline by forcing his players to wear matching Armani suits. (Can you imagine Doc Rivers doing that?) Meanwhile in New York, Puma staged a fashion show, combining the new uniforms for the Women's Professional Soccer league (WPS) with soccer-inspired dresses designed by Christian Siriano, the asymmetrically-coiffed winner of Project Runway.

We were there. After all, it's not every day we get to see Olympic gold medalists strutting down a catwalk made of Astroturf and then get to lounge around on a white leather couch with Marta, the three-time World Player of the Year. Marta likes fashion, she told us. She used to watch Project Runway all the time when she played professionally in Sweden.

Siriano, on the other hand, said he was not a sports fan, but he did play "center mid" when he was in junior high. His contribution to the evening: two cocktail dresses made of the same fabric as soccer jerseys, "inspired by the home and away uniforms." The "home" dress was bright red-orange with a matching fabric choker studded with silver Puma pins. The "away" dress was gray.

"When you're at home," Siriano said, reminiscing about his soccer days, "you had your mother and your grandmother and every family member you've ever known in your entire life coming to your game, and when you go away, they're not there, and it's so sad."

Someone asked if the dresses' high-tech sports fabric helped wick away sweat.

"Yes," Siriano answered. "I have seen girls on the dance floor who are too sweaty."

Any discussion of women's soccer and fashion will, for better or worse, bring up Brandi Chastain's sports-bra celebration and FIFA president Sepp Blatter's gaffe: "Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball," he said, "They could, for example, have tighter shorts."

And the WPS actually seemed to be working on a more "feminine" uniform, but instead of tight shorts, they went for the skort. Strangely, though, the WPS skorts, or "wraps" as they call them, are purely ornamental. They can be attached to the shorts but won't be worn during games. They're like breakaway warmup pants—but not warm and not pants.

Basketball, where warm-up pants thrive, may rival soccer in fashion terms with its tricked-out sneakers and throwback jerseys. But the two sports have very different styles. Just watch the video we did with Kobe Bryant wearing a Barcelona kit. He can't stop talking about how short the shorts are, just because they fall slightly above the knee.

Don't be embarrassed, Kobe. At least they never spelled your name wrong on your jersey (Roque Santa Cruz got "Satna Cruz" this past Sunday), and you never had to wear this.

EXTRA TIME

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• Like super models, soccer players should be tall and skinny, says scientists

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