In what must have been one of the slowest news days of late summer, one local TV station opened its evening broadcast with the rather astonishing news that Chicago was becoming the miniskirt capital of the country-or maybe it was the world.
In a somewhat breathless report, one of the anchorpersons seemed to be indicating that stores were selling out of the tiny skirts as fast as they could stock them and that women were thrilled to pieces that these remnants from the `60s were finally making a comeback.
To anyone who had walked the length of Michigan Avenue or circled the Loop that day and noticed the preponderance of floaty ankle-length skirts or the typical Queen Mother 2-inches-below-the-knee length, the story was amusing.
But to women of assorted shapes, sizes, ages and professions who like pants and long skirts-and may not like their legs-the story was a bummer.
Peggy Lee`s classic ballad ”Is That All There Is?” became their plaintive theme song as well.
Is is true? Is short all there is? The answer, of course, is ”No.”
Sometimes a resounding and surprising ”No.” There are short skirts, to be sure, but there are also long skirts and pants-fashionable ones at that.
Some will even be labeled Calvin Klein. The long skirt may be dead in his highest-priced collection, but in his not-too-cheap ($145-$365) group called
”Classics,” there are ”tons of long dresses,” says a spokesman, plus loads of long skirts (challis dirndls, full skirts in suede and crepe de chine).
Marshall Field`s fashion director Sal Ruggiero says that ”alternatives to short exist in almost every collection.”
American designers offer the widest selection of skirt lengths, from above the knees to ankle-grazers, and the Italians have some of the most beautiful ones-with the Giorgio Armani and Krizia styles cited most often, along with those by Americans Gloria Sachs and Ralph Lauren and Parisian Emanuel Ungaro.
Ruggiero also notes that, though short will be the first purchase made by the fashion conscious, it is not the dominant length in many stores` stock. For example, at Fields, overall, 35 percent of skirts are short; in juniors, that ratio changes to 50-50, and in areas appealing to business women, long may lead by 60-40.
Ultimo`s president Joan Weinstein, Chicago`s premier voice for forward fashion, says she bought fall items for their interesting aspects, not their lengths. ”There are long skirts that are fabulous because the fabrics are sensational-Armani`s-or because they move in such a sensuous way-Sonia Rykiel`s, Jean Muir`s. These are the kinds of skirts that are far more beautiful than a short skirt that may do nothing for the body or may reveal legs that are not wonderful.”
Weinstein also says the magic words: ”Women who wear long skirts definitely need not feel `left out` or `unfashionable.` ”
That naughty word, ”unfashionable,” according to numerous fashion pros, only belongs to skinny skirts that end two to three inches below the knees.
Though pants will probably not dominate-as they did in the early `70s when women rebelled against the then-radical mid-calf length-they will be alternatives for women who believe that legs have to be terrific to be put on display. For them, there are the softer, fuller trousers with inverted pleats or soft tucks, high-waisted stretchy tapered ones, or pleated classics-even from Calvin Klein.
