• The Wall Street Journal, Friday, September 7, 2007 1 PM

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. And pants, which were super-skinny just this summer, are flaring out to sail-like widths this fall. Also, tent-like trapeze dresses are giving way to close-cut pencil skirts.

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.

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. "I think women have just said, 'Basta, enough! I'm tired of looking like a child,'" says designer Michael Kors, who now finds longer lengths more sophisticated.

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