Montreal has long been considered one of the fashion capitals of the world.

Next to New York City, I would be hard-pressed to find a more culturally diverse fashion nexus in North America. Each season, Montreal’s mainstream stores and high-end boutiques carry the latest and most dynamic trends that the fashion world has to offer.

But high fashion and daily wearability are often mutually exclusive.

Just because we have access to the latest styles does not mean that we should be running out and adding items to our wardrobes each season.

Being in fashion is about observing the most recent trends and only taking the bits and pieces that suit your personal style.

Let’s look at a dandelion of the fashion industry — an atrocious weed of a trend that keeps popping up again every few seasons —the skinny pant.

The skinny pant first made its mainstream appearance in wardrobes across North America in the ’60s.

Unlike the flare style that was all the rage in the ’90s — designed to flare out at the knee, balancing out the thigh and giving the illusion of a slimmer top half — the skinny pant hugs the leg right down to the ankle. Most of us do not have legs that can stand such scrutiny, but more about that later.

Fashion is about nostalgia, and it doesn’t take a fashion expert to see that we humans simply recycle trends every few decades. In a recent Gap ad campaign, the skinny jean was publicized by using old Audrey Hepburn footage.

Though she’s been dead over a decade, the old fashion icon looks just right in the present day campaign since her wardrobe is what today’s generation has labeled fashionable.

But looking at Hepburn dancing around in the campaign’s archival footage hasn’t quite sold me on this trend.

For starters, Hepburn’s measurements were recorded in 1953 as being 34A-20-34. No, that 20 is not a typo.

She stood five feet seven inches tall and weighed a mere 110 lbs. Normal people just don’t look like that, nor should they aspire to.

Hippies had no use for the binding skinny style and the pant was tossed aside and replaced by flowing skirts made of comfortable gingham, tie-dyed T-shirts and loose fitting jeans that allowed for practical functionality.

Skinny pants returned in the ’80s — a rather strange decade. An actor was playing president, a sequined glove-wearing man in military garb topped the charts, and hair was made to look like an electrocuted poodle.

The theory behind the skinny pant is simple; wearing slim fitting pants shows off a person’s curves and makes them look skinny, but the skinny pant is only flattering to skinny people. Frankly, the name should be changed to the “skinny person pant.”

There are, of course, those nauseating people who look good in everything and they look darn good in the skinny pant. And for those who can pull it off, one bonus is that this style is designed to highlight footwear.

Maia Bensoussan, 28, had fun adding skinny pants to her wardrobe this season. “It’s easy to dress them up and they look fabulous over great heels you want to show off,” she explains.

So the style is designed to bring attention not only to a woman’s curves, but to her accessories, and as with every pant style, the skinny trend has also made its way into the denim market, offering women a more “dressy” jean alternative.

And the skinny pant has also spawned a mixed bag of fashion atrocities and hideous accessories.

A garden of pastel-coloured suede ankle length boots and long unflattering shirts worn falling off the shoulder in high vagrant style are now in vogue. Also making a triumphant return is the worn-too-high-and-far-too-thick belt, contemporary society’s exterior corset that binds a woman’s midsection to accentuate the curvaceous buttocks and breasts.

Of course, in order for this style to work, an average-sized woman needs to wear control top panties and a push-up brassier with ample padding. Haven’t we evolved at all from the Victorian era?

Starting her accounting career, Romy Waxman has spent a lot of time this season shopping for work-appropriate clothing.

A few months ago she was encouraged by a salesperson to go the skinny pant route.

“This 90-pound, 16-year-old salesgirl looked fabulous in them and impulsively, I got a pair,” Waxman explains.

Though Waxman purchased the pants in July, “they have been hanging in the closet ever since,” she says, shaking her head, “and that’s where they’ll stay until I discover them in three years and give them to the Salvation Army.”

How is it that a trend can suddenly negate our personal senses of style?

Are we really so indoctrinated into consumer culture that we’ve lost the ability to make rational decisions about what flatters our own bodies?

The answer, embarrassing as it is to admit, is yes!

The newest thing is often considered the best; we buy impulsively and think later.

Personal fashion shouldn’t be dictated by the year or what the magazines have labeled “hot.”

It should be dictated by the woman’s body type and size — period.

And certain styles should never be allowed back. We repeat the errors of our past over and over.

So, the skinny pant does in fact look fabulous — on skinny people. But it, and all its various counterparts, should be laid to rest, once and for all.

Jimmy Altman and Lauren Silverman share dinner in his Dollard des Ormeaux home and discuss the details of Silverman’s upcoming wedding and chatting about the importance of family. It’s a scene played out by many fathers and daughters, except in this case, Altman is Silverman’s step-father.

Brought together 12 years ago, the two represent members of a growing group — the blended family. Both Altman and Silverman’s mother, Anita Vatch, had two children from previous relationships.

“About one third of all marriages in Canada end in divorce” says Dr. Anne-Marie Ambert in her study, Divorce: Facts, Figures and Consequences.

“About 75 percent and 65 percent, respectively, of divorced men and women remarry.”

And according to a 1987 Statistic Canada report, 96,200 couples had their divorces finalized. During the past 20 years since then, nearly 70 percent have re-married, giving birth to blended families.

Vatch remembers the early days and says Altman tried to make the transition as easy as possible on her kids. “Jimmy has always treated Lauren and Adam as if they were his own children. There is no distinction between home-made kids and blended families in our house.”

Silverman, now 26, wasn’t initially enamoured with Altman’s arrival. Raised for years by their mother, Silverman and her brother suddenly had to share her.

“I’d had my mom all to myself since the divorce,” explains Silverman. “My brother was more open to the relationship at the start because his major concern was that my mother be taken care of. As a teenager, I wasn’t very open to having a step-father. It wasn’t that I didn’t like Jimmy, it was that I didn’t want to share my mother.”

“She definitely gave Jimmy a run for his money,” says Vatch.

That was also the case with Melanie Martin, who gave her new step-father a hard time when he entered her life 20 years ago.

“I remember walking down the street just yelling expletives at him” recalls Martin, also 26, of her first outing with Wayne Belmore.

Martin says she rebelled because she thought Belmore was trying to replace her biological father.

But she says Belmore waited it out and now he and Martin share a close relationship. “He was patient and gave me time to realize he wasn’t trying to take anyone’s place. He was just trying to be my friend.”

Like Silverman, Martin also enjoyed a close and supportive relationship with her step-father. When she announced several years ago that she was gay, Belmore was one of the first people she confided in. “He helped me cope by making it clear that he loved me no matter what,” she says.

Silverman can now look back and laugh at the once tense situation.

“I certainly gave Jimmy a hard time when I was a teenager… Okay, recently too!” she says with a smile. Despite this, she says “he’s never treated me like anything other than his own daughter.”

Altman says the key to making it work is just waiting it out while offering unconditional love. “I let her know I’m on her side and try to find some common ground.” In their case, that common ground was Vatch.

“Jimmy made my mom happy, and even as a teenager, I was able to appreciate that,“ says Silverman. “He definitely fits the bill as a parent because he’s there for me every step of the way.”

True to form, Altman will be there for another important step in his step-daughter’s life, walking her down the aisle this August.