Fashion: Back to School

Once, a college coed might have whiled away her summer boning up on a fourth language, rereading Russian novels, or recording the labyrinthian travels of a psychopathic mouse. That was that. Today, if she's got her wits (and her checkbook) about her, she winds up such frivolous pursuits in record time, the better to spend what remains of vacation (and her savings account) far away from libraries and laboratories, exploring the nooks and air-conditioned crannies, the dressing rooms and display counters of all available department stores. For times have changed; according to...