Hold Onto Your Circle Skirt: The '50S Are Back

Happy days are here again: off-the-shoulder coats at Prada and flirty dresses with accentuated waists at Carolina Herrera, and those ever-so-ladylike accessories, gloves, have made a comeback. Sylvia, Mona Lisa Smile and A Different Loyalty will bring the '50s look to the screen beginning this fall. All this comes on the heels of Julianne Moore's double feature as a circle-skirted housewife in The Hours and Far from Heaven. So why the re-return? "I think there is a frequent return to lots of times, like '30s-inspired slip dresses that keep coming back," says Oscar winner Sandy Powell, who designed the costumes for Sylvia and Far from Heaven. Next up: the Roaring Twenties? --By Kate Novack