Just last year, Bermuda shorts were featured in a magazine ad for The Learning Channel show "What Not to Wear".

This year, however, they are headlining at Fashion Week in New York City - just another testament to the short cycle of fashion.

"Try on the new, sexy Bermuda shorts, hot off the spring/summer 2005 Olympus Fashion Week runways," the Fashion Week Web site bragged yesterday (www.olympusfashionweek.com).

Designer Peter Som is part of the Fashion Week line-up - and an arrangement with Bermuda Tourism has him incorporating Bermuda shorts into his collection, scheduled for show on February 10. Mr. Som told the New York Times recently that he had already planned to show what he called "city shorts" in his fall collection - a knee-length cut that is similar to a pencil skirt - before he was approached by Tourism.

Now they are called "Bermuda city shorts".

Bermuda Tourism will also have a booth set up where attendees can sample a Dark 'n' Stormy, as well as enter to win a vacation to Bermuda for two.

The Department's sponsorship of Fashion Week is adding fuel to the fires of a debate currently raging regarding the grey line between fashion and marketing ploys. Along with Bermuda shorts, shows at Fashion Week will feature: Delta airline uniforms, Hewlett-Packard computer products, a $2,890 Kohler toilet, and dogs modelling for Target Stores.

Labels such as Nicole Miller stopped attending Fashion Week several years ago in protest. "When you're talking about sponsors, they come with commercial obligations that have to be in your face all the time," Nicole Miller chief executive Bud Konheim told the New York Times. "What happened to the fashion? Where is the elegance?"

With the cost of presenting a show usually topping $100,000, however, sponsorships are "the reality of being a young company," Mr. Som said.

Tourism Minister Ewart Brown, who is off the Island, was unavailable for comment.