Living: Finally, Let There Be Legs!

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Is there anyone out there who thinks miniskirts were buried in the 1960s, along with pillbox hats and macrame belts? No way. All by its sassy self, the mighty mini has suddenly jumped to the fore of today's fashion scene. Dressed up in a variety of guises -- bubbled, tubed, tiered and flounced -- the thoroughly modern mini is competing hard with the billowy, prodigious shin- length skirts of the past few years. "Suddenly everybody is talking and worrying about it," says Italian Couturier Valentino. "That means the mini is here to stay."

With the first touch of warm weather, the mini has sprouted throughout the Sunbelt. Sightings of audacious creatures with never-ending legs have occurred in Southern California, Texas and Florida, while in New York City and Chicago, spangled and poufed little nighttime numbers are hitting the dance floors. Unlike the brassy '60s mini, these sporty skirts are practicing a subtle restraint. In fact, many of those for daytime wear are just knee skimmers, and even the more risque are hiked but a few inches above the knee. Designer Donna Karan insists that none of her short skirts should be sold without opaque stockings to lengthen the look: "I have addressed the leg. I haven't left women hanging, wondering, 'What do I do with the leg?' "

There will be few microminis, those brazen bumper stickers that show nothing but the leg and require a companion-bodyguard to be worn safely. "The new minis are not thigh-high, the kind where if you drop a quarter on the ground, you have to leave it there," says Lynn Schnurnberger, author of the upcoming Let There Be Clothes: 40,000 Years of Fashion Unveiled. "This batch didn't come from a revolutionary, free-sex period. They are cool, pretty, definitely not overly suggestive."

If the modern mini is not as short, it also is not as structured. "In the '60s women had cookie-cutter dresses. They were all A-lines, and the women looked like paper dolls cut in a row," says Designer Carolyne Roehm, who ships her minis to the stores considerably longer than those worn by her models. However, she jokes about "putting a note in every garment saying, 'I suggest that you will feel infinitely younger if you shorten this four inches.' "

Why the hemline hike in 1987? For starters, the modern woman who spends ten hours a week in the gym sculpting her legs with weights and aerobics wants to display the hard-earned results. "Usually a woman's leg is the last part of the body to go," observes the practical Calvin Klein. "There's a big change in the air about sexy, young clothes for the modern women of any age." If minis represent a middle-aged woman's best hope for a sexy look, they also provide fresh new ammo for leggy female yuppies confronting the much publicized man shortage. For still others, they are a simple backlash against man-tailored suits and dress-for-success drabs. Valentino waxes philosophical. "We live today in a very difficult world," he observes. "Women have to make an effort to look more happy, more smiling. It is a social step, not a fashion trick."