Life as a Runway: A Watery Catwalk in Brooklyn The day was a scorcher, temperatures soaring to nearly 100 degrees. But the Brooklyn crowd queuing in block-long lines for a dip into the McCarren Park Pool on Thursday, opening day, were not about to forfeit their cool. Not Oliver Vonderahe or a bearded Chris Goldstein, who dressed for their outing in giddily matching orange and yellow tie-dyed T-shirts. Or Liz Yang, a student in animation at the School of Visual Arts, who wore a hibiscus-patterned shift in raucous neon tints; or Paige Thompson, dressed in a breezy romper and looking like an extra from the set of "Girls." Inside a pool area large enough to accommodate more than 1,500 swimmers, visitors showed off their style smarts with high-waist, two-piece suits; tie-dyed maillots; and shorts in rainforest hues. Most, though, had nothing on the lifeguards, young men and women decked out in eye-catching Crayola-orange suits, matching towels and whistles. It was a style show, for sure, on a day uneventful until just after 6 p.m., when a fight broke out between teenagers and lifeguards who demanded that they stop turning back-flips into the pool. But outside the gates, in this area bordering Williamsburg and Greenpoint, calm prevailed. "I've been waiting in line for half an hour," said Aneta Bujno, 21, who passed the time twirling a homemade hula hoop that accompanied her T-shirt, denim shorts and floppy bow tie, a summer-camp turnout worthy of a Wes Anderson flick. Gazing longingly at the pool just within eye range, she murmured, "This looks fantastic." It's a wait, but it's so worth it.