Hemlines Are Plunging

Check out this "Boomer" friendly news from The Wall Street Journal's Cheryl Lu-Lien: Tan

The fashion pendulum is swinging to extremes these days. Pants, which were super-skinny just this summer, are flaring out to sail-like widths this fall. Tent-like trapeze dresses are giving way to close-cut pencil skirts. And now — most dramatically — hemlines are dropping.

One of the biggest themes emerging at this year’s New York fashion week is the longer hemline. Here’s a peek at a few top designers’ sketches of this new look.

One of the biggest themes emerging this week at New York fashion shows, which are displaying styles for next spring, is much longer dresses and skirts, many extending to midcalf or even the ankles. Today, Badgley Mischka and Bill Blass are scheduled to present long dresses and skirts for the spring. In the following week, labels including Michael Kors, Donna Karan, Peter Som, Nanette Lepore and Tracy Reese are planning to show longer pieces, many of which are flowing dresses meant to be worn during the day.

The longer looks are a big departure from the micro-mini shifts and short, youthful baby-doll dresses that have dominated stores and runways for several seasons. Just this spring, thigh-skimming looks reminiscent of the mod 1960s were the big trend that retailers and designers were pushing.

Designers — who pooh-pooh the old stock-market adage that falling hemlines presage a falling market – say it’s only natural for the fashion pendulum to swing toward a new shape as the industry seeks to capture shoppers’ interest. Fashion has been careening from one extreme to another particularly quickly these days amid speedier clothing production and broader consumer interest in frequent updates.

As an unofficial and unelected member of the fashion police, I am charged with ticketing any violators of this new fashion, even though it will probably take a year for it to get to PDX. I will say this is great news for boomers and our gravity challenged skin above the knees.

Bev & Mike
Landfair Furniture + Design Gallery