FASHION: Who Wears the Pants?

"Be alive, be alert, be aware/Be a girl, be so glad you can wear/All the plain and fancy pants/When you're given a chance." So rhapsodized Pants Internationale last week in Los Angeles at a showing of California designs for 78 fashion editors from all over the U.S. Indeed, pants plain and fancy were being worn everywhere. The newest pants, stretch-pants adapted from European ski suits for the beach and living room, are so tight they have stretched the word slacks out of shape. One designer even labeled his stretch-pants creation "Scuba Reeds," so close are they to the rubber suit worn by skindivers.

Generous, tailored or tight, slacks are the fastest growing item in milady's wardrobe across the U.S., with 30 million pairs sold last year v. only 6,000,000 a decade ago. The pants boom has brought a revival of the culotte—pants cut to hang like skirts—to the point where designers are now making culottes in all sizes and fabrics, including culotte Bermudas and knee-length chiffon hostess models. So popular have dressy slacks become for evening entertaining that women guests are often trapped by a kind of fashion one-upwomanship: they wear dressy frocks and high heels for dinner parties, may be greeted by a hostess enviably svelte and comfortable in velveteen or brocade slacks and a beaded sweater.