Commentor Jason sends along this piece on the supposed decline of skin in fashion

(Tell it to the young woman sitting in front of us at the baseball game the other night. Well, it does take a while for the heartland to catch the newest trends)

The low-slung "waist" – line and belly shirts are supposedly out…in (and this I know is true) are the long peasant skirts, longer shirts, and so on. As the mother of an almost 14-year old who is starting to be interested in dressing not so much like a little girl any more…phew.

(Oh, and don’t say "Land’s End" blah, blah blah. Land’s End is good for many things, and good up to a certain age. But not every girl wants to look crisp and preppy all the time. )

I remember when a similar shift occurred back in the 70’s. In fact, I remember it vividly, for some reason – when minis started going out and longer skirts came in. I was a freshman in high school, in the fall of ’74, when one of my fellow students appeared on a no-uniform day in a skirt (plaid, probably, as was the style) that went down to her knees. And she was one of the "cool" ones. What struck me was how grown-up she looked, what a mature appearance that skirt gave her. I wanted to look that way, too.