Word: midi
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Food was the fastest riser in September's index. The second largest jump occurred in women's apparel, partly because, in addition to its other disadvantages, the midi is expensive. Presidential Economic Adviser Paul McCracken took some comfort in reporting that the rate of rise in the consumer price index has declined slightly quarter to quarter, despite the September increase. On the other hand, the more comprehensive price index, the so-called G.N.P. deflator, rose from the second quarter to the third quarter...
...through the summer the questions loomed over the fashion horizon: Whither the midi? Would autumn, and the return to real clothes, find women taking the downward drift in stride, their minis in mothballs, their legs in hiding? Designers scoffed at alternatives, and so-called smart stores had little else in stock. But October is here and almost gone, and only the leaves are falling; skirts are just about as short as ever. All told, the mid-calf hemline seems clearly a long-lost proposition...
...elections, canvassed more than 22,000 readers this month, reported 83% wearing skirts above the knee (a percentage in accord with the daily "Hem Line Index," compiled by Manhattan's Women's Haberdashers shops and posted in the window of the main store). Sales figures for the midi are harder to come by, though a representative of a chain of Boston dress shops admits, "Business is not as bouncy as we would like...
More Alterations. Washington, D.C., merchandisers report a steady flow of "bring-backs," generally attributable to husbands whose passions, and fountain pens, run dry at the midi. Trial selections of mid-calf fashions sold so poorly that stores in Miami, Atlanta and Portland ordered only 10% of their fall stock in the longer lengths, are getting little help from customers in reducing even that small fraction. At a Los Angeles fundraising party for Governor Reagan this month, a cool three out of 450 lady guests turned up in midis; the rest brazened it out in long gowns or pants. Even...
...part, the resistance to the midi was caused by the all-out, hard-sell approach. "It was presented as a look that had to be very carefully accessorized, very carefully put together," contends Los Angeles Times Fashion Writer Alan Cartnal. "Now who's going to bother with that at a time when half the girls at U.C.L.A. haven't had on anything more complicated than a pair of jeans since the organdy number they wore on their eighth birthday?" There were also economic drawbacks. "A recession," says Mrs. Jean G. Bowen, an administrative assistant at Harvard Medical School...