Just Too Tight

Designers have been saying so: women won’t be told what to wear. And there’s never been stronger proof. A dominant style that the big names pushed down their fashion runways for summer is all but being ignored.

Short, skin-tight dresses and I-can’t-breathe pants aren’t making it. Not in Los Angeles. This is proving to be the summer of wide, gauzy, ankle-length dresses, slouchy pantsuits, tunic tops and capri-leggings.

The spray-it-on look had a moment, at the MTV awards last spring. And that’s exactly where it would stand the best chance of working. Twenty-year-olds can handle a body gripper the length of a men’s T-shirt. Most other woman can’t. And they seem able to live with that, judging from what you see around town these first warm summer days. It’s that same damn-the-Establishment attitude that pervades politics today. When it comes to what they wear, women are voting with their wallets.